>one of which became rather infamous years later lol

mtgox? :)

>TBH if a "developer" cringes their nose at a very capable tool, just because it is not the latest "cool" thing, It tells me a lot about them.

This is called the straw man fallacy. You wrongly assume that the lack of coolness is why people dislike PHP and you dismiss the whole argument based on that.

Doing great stuff with PHP is like building a skyscraper using nothing but a hammer and a screwdriver and a few rotten planks. It's the builder who's amazing (albeit a bit crazy), not the hammer, the screwdriver or the planks. Imagine what he might've made with proper equipment?

Would you like to live in such a skyscraper?