I have often seen php bashed around the webs as a loosely typed(loose typing as in a lot of type coercion and/or easy(and perhaps common) to cast object all over not dynamic typing) language without a great compiler/interpreter/vm, with even the standard library using a number of different naming conventions.

A lot of people complain about perl but many (including a lot of the complainers) also give it a lot of credit for its regexes and general flexibility and power.

Other then legacy code , giant web frameworks that can do tons(drupal,ect.), and easy cheap hosting what is good about php (,also what criticism are unfair, and how is the language evolving to overcome its problems). Why would i want to learn it? why would I want to do an independent project in it?

The main thing I have heard is that its php codes simplicity is sometimes easier then the over-engineered complexity you find in certain Java frameworks and applications.

I'm not just trolling, i'm genuinly curious what makes php programmers use it. try to convince me to put it on my languages to dabble in and languages to learn more in depth lists.