Is FuelPHP or CodeIgniter still going? Those were my two favourites back in the day before Laravel came on the scene.
IMO Laravel is kind of the spiritual successor to CodeIgniter, although of course a lot has changed between V1 and V11
Eventually discovered just building stuff was going to bring me the most joy, no matter the tool. It's been a joy learning PHP again though, even if I do suck at it right now.