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It's unrealistic to compare WordPress php and Facebook php. Most website running WordPress do not need the optimization required to run facebook.

If there is something that slows down WordPress it's the database queries, the amount of external assets and bloated themes. There are more then files being downloaded for each requests and all served from the same server.

Throw in hhvm or any optimization on the code and you still have to deal with the other issues.

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You definitely did not have a deep look at "how to optimize wordpress". It's a massive spaghetti piece of awful PHP that does A LOT of completely unnecessary work. Now as a smart VM, it's possible to reduce quite a bit this amount of work (inlining etc.) and the JIT coming from HHVM can come handy in here.

My blog spends about 10% average request time doing database work. The big WordPress sites I've worked on are generally about the same.

The database is not where raw performance opportunities lie on a sensibly built WordPress site.

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