I can't stop thinking about this thread regarding PHP's leadership and funding...

I recently stumbled upon this thread on Mastodon that has been living rent-free in my head for the last few days:

https://fosstodon.org/@webinoly/116077001923702932

I’ve always taken PHP for granted as this massive, stable engine, but I had no idea that a project of this scale still faces such significant funding and leadership hurdles. The discussion mentions something that really struck me: the idea that PHP's "disorganization" might have been a survival mechanism in the past, but is now a bottleneck.

As a technical person, I don’t usually think about the "political" side of software, but look at these examples:

• Meta (Facebook): They built HHVM and then Hack. Imagine if that massive R&D budget had been channeled directly into the PHP Core from the start instead of creating a separate fork.
• AWS: They’ve done incredible work optimizing PHP performance for their ARM (Graviton) chips, but it often feels like these improvements happen in isolation rather than being driven by a unified institutional roadmap.

The thread also makes a provocative comparison with Rust. It’s clear that Rust’s recent explosion isn't just because of memory safety, but because of high-level lobbying that got governments and giant corporations to mandate its use.

Is it possible that "just adding features" isn't enough anymore? Does PHP need a radical brand reset and more "political" leadership to capture the R&D that is currently being spent around it instead of on it?

I’m curious to hear from those of you who have been in the ecosystem longer. Am I being naive, or is the "Last Mile" of PHP (infrastructure, branding, and lobbying) its real Achilles' heel?