That was what I thought he was aiming for to but then he, out of nowhere, suddenly praised PHP. I'm 99% sure that I don't have to check out PHP again to see if it's really something about it that I've missed.
Yes, the PHP "language" sucks. But that isn't what matters: From a practical standpoint, it's good for getting things done.
The reason? Almost zero deployment complexity. You can take Joe Web Designer off the street, give him SFTP (or, more likely, FTP) credentials, and have him modifying your site in minutes.
I love PHP, but I'm in programming like a shade-tree mechanic: I just want a large enough hammer to make something work, I don't care how pretty the end result is.