I have similar experience. Left when it was still 5.* something.
Now I mainly do TypeScript/JavaScript and some Rust on the side.
To me, PHP was more of a limiter rather than painful experience (it was a bit painful though). I couldn't imagine how to even make a chat app.
If not for my moving out of PHP to NodeJS now I wouldn't be a software architect and explore the rest of the fun and challenging part of computing domain.
Now I mainly do TypeScript/JavaScript and some Rust on the side.
To me, PHP was more of a limiter rather than painful experience (it was a bit painful though). I couldn't imagine how to even make a chat app.
If not for my moving out of PHP to NodeJS now I wouldn't be a software architect and explore the rest of the fun and challenging part of computing domain.