> It received way too much beating from the community in the last couple of years..

I think it didn't get the beating it deserve. If it was by merit alone, this language should be dead by now. People keep saying that it is improving. But actually it is not. The rotten core, what makes php php, very much remain, and it is still a very dangerous language to use for anything serious [1].

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/PHP/comments/41bm7j/new_rfc_allow_s...