> A truly modern language is Rust.

Don't recent PHP releases actually have a pretty good selection of nice, modern features? Union types, JIT compiler, pattern matching against types, nullsafe operator, gradual typing, etc. It seems like FP style is better and better supported with each new release, which is another hallmark of modern languages like Rust.

If you're stuck on some cursed, barely-maintained PHP 6 legacy codebase, you can't enjoy these things, but when it comes to choosing PHP for new projects it seems like it's more modern than its reputation.