A lot of programming languages get crap like that, even from it's own fanbase.

The problem really arises when people refuse to change their behaviors when it's security or efficiency related. PHP has seen this with the people who still -- 15 years after we were first warned to stop doing it -- crap variables into their query strings as if they were still using the long dead mysql_ functions.

Or worse the people from outside PHP who still think of it as slow -- despite also saying database is the real bottleneck so which is it? -- or think it has an old incomplete object model as if we're still talking about PHP 5/earlier.

See the node.js fanboys who say utter gibberish nonsense like "Who makes a new PHP program in 2021?" -- likely because they've drunk too deeply of the JavaScript tainted flavor-aid.

I've heard similar statements about how Perl is a "dead language" and it's like "are you aware of how many Linux distro's optimize their startup?".

But then I'm a Pascal guy, so I'm used to hearing people say "dead language" as if FPC and Delphi don't continue to see regular updates, with software like Nero Burning Rom, WinRAR, and Aida64 being built and maintained in it.