I agree with the other reply -- this isn't so much of an indictment of PHP, as it is front-end development in general.

Sure, to keep it simple you could download your JS and PHP deps once and bundle them all up in one nice zip. I think many apps provide a "dist" or "release" bundle (this one, in fact, does) in which you don't have to care about Composer, Bower or npm. However, to properly organize deps or define build processes for development, why not use some of the (frankly) common tools available?

It's funny how HN could see a simple unzip-and-go app and scoff "amateur hour hobby project". But if someone takes a more formal approach to their hobby app it can flip and scoff "over-engineered bloated setup".