PHP got shamed for these things because people built complex, and over time unmaintainable, systems in it.
Mind you, the "old ways" still work - you can still write a few lines, upload it, boom it works. Projects around PHP might have developed different ways of working, but that's because of problems in the old way - and that's not a fault of PHP, it's a plus that things move in a more maintainable and type-safe direction. You even reap some benefits when doing a "write a few lines, upload it, boom it works" workflow.
That's not to say PHP isn't been overcomplicating itself & hasn't fully embraced why it's so succesfull and improved that part: it's easy & practical.
How can it be even easier? For instance even simpler hosting? With things like vercel, and app engine PHP isn't necessarily the simplest choice in hosting sites anymore.
> That's not to say PHP isn't been overcomplicating itself & hasn't fully embraced why it's so succesfull and improved that part: it's easy & practical.
Do you have specific examples for things where PHP has been overcomplicating itself? Most complex things seem to actually make things easier for newbies (e.g. typing can be a great help).
And as a legacy dev you can just ignore all of those new things. You do not have to use lavarel or any of the latest, greatest frameworks or features. Your code from 15years ago will just work as well.
Mind you, the "old ways" still work - you can still write a few lines, upload it, boom it works. Projects around PHP might have developed different ways of working, but that's because of problems in the old way - and that's not a fault of PHP, it's a plus that things move in a more maintainable and type-safe direction. You even reap some benefits when doing a "write a few lines, upload it, boom it works" workflow.