Speaking as someone who is tangled in a love triangle between Python and PHP. I do agree that PHP does have it's strengths. For the programmer just making a living, it's quite ok to etch out just using it.

In terms of web applications, what you can accomplish in PHP you can pretty much do in Python. But the difference comes in when you do "care" about the tools you're using.

When you want that extra power. When you want something sane to work with.

Python and friends give provide that for you.

I do love PHP, it's deployment is a snap and the frameworks we have now are kick ass. But Python is such a joy to work with it. And the longer I work with it, it gets harder to come back to PHP.