PHP wore me out and depressed me learning software development. I only ever became a software developer because of the immense promise of how statically-typed languages can improve informatics. Java turned me off because of the lack of point-and-click interface, lack of solid "turnkey" web development, and lack of functional programming. So C# became the language of choice, and I've been able to develop without going crazy. In the last 6 years, Typescript's become highly appealing as well. I've advanced incredibly quickly by avoiding any Javascript bundling other than Typescript modules and runtime bundling. Websites are built page-first; single-page application design is used extremely sparingly.
Languages that insufficiently describe the flow of information or insufficiently model domains are dead ends.