Whenever I read about a new PHP release on HackerNews I always come away disappointed with the discussion. You are right, the "magic" that the top comment is complaining about is a non-issue, and I say that as someone who really strongly dislikes "magic" behavior.
In fact, you can imagine what their argument WOULD have been if setting `$this->countryCode` inside the setter for `countryCode` DID result in infinite recursion.
When it comes to PHP, whatever it does, on HackerNews and in the rest of the industry, it just results in a bunch of people complaining about it. Disappointing, and unprofessional.