I've been a PHP programmer for most of my professional career and switched a few years ago. PHP has a bad name for a long time. True or not, this started weighing on me and I shared a lot of the opinions you wrote here.
People will continue to roll their eyes. Whether deserved is besides the point. I was no longer interested in being a 'PHP programmer' and have to justify my worth. PHP is by all measures on it's way out. If you are looking at other ecosystems of course you're going to find things that aren't great. PHP has those too but in the 15 years you've been doing it you've created habits that perfectly avoid those. You're not going to attain those same skills immediately elsewhere, and the things that are worse from your perspective are going to stand out more than the things that are better.
You've tied your professional identity to a programming language that people dislike. It's not a fun place to be, but trust me you'll be better off in the long run. This has NOTHING to do with language features, and everything with your feelings and bitterness. Your post is full of emotions. It's not worth feeling this way, it's just a programming language.
People will continue to roll their eyes. Whether deserved is besides the point. I was no longer interested in being a 'PHP programmer' and have to justify my worth. PHP is by all measures on it's way out. If you are looking at other ecosystems of course you're going to find things that aren't great. PHP has those too but in the 15 years you've been doing it you've created habits that perfectly avoid those. You're not going to attain those same skills immediately elsewhere, and the things that are worse from your perspective are going to stand out more than the things that are better.
You've tied your professional identity to a programming language that people dislike. It's not a fun place to be, but trust me you'll be better off in the long run. This has NOTHING to do with language features, and everything with your feelings and bitterness. Your post is full of emotions. It's not worth feeling this way, it's just a programming language.