Confirmation bias. 99% of PHP developers out there are in fact absolute shit, and they're happy with it because they're developing "websites" instead of "applications."
Right tool for the right job. You can use qualifiers like "serious" and "modern" but you're deluding yourself if you think they mean anything when the pool of PHP developers is so staggeringly high.
I'm under no delusion. Admittedly this is the wrong place to be debating anything PHP, but I wouldn't suggest that the average skill level of "everybody who writes PHP" is anything better than incompetent. The people I'm sitting next to now and have worked with in the past are as real as I am - the 1% you recognise are the serious and modern PHP developers. We exist and we're the pool you hire from.
Of course, right tool for the right job. PHP has specific use cases but that's another discussion entirely.
Right tool for the right job. You can use qualifiers like "serious" and "modern" but you're deluding yourself if you think they mean anything when the pool of PHP developers is so staggeringly high.