If anything, Laravel has been what has kept PHP relevant. The community (both PHP and Laravel) has continually grown year over year after the sharp decline of everyone’s poor experience with PHP < v5.0, and Laravel has clearly been responsible for that more than anything.

I perceived it to be more of a confusion over the paid/premium stuff which in hindsight wasn't that big of a deal but this highlights a precarious warning in that anytime one framework gets big enough and it muddies the boundaries between paid and free, it sends a signal to developers to look elsewhere.