Anecdotally I see also rude health: Wordpress already has an activitypub plugin whereas symphony based kbin is a very interesting proposition for a federated alternative to reddit that already sees traction. And Nextcloud is delivering data sovereignty and showing the way for personalized "clouds" here and now.
What is missing from PHP is really an easily communicable "story". Both at the technical level of the language and its tooling and at the community level and its vision.
This is not unique to PHP. Older ecosystems like C++ and Java, on which much of the world still runs, have a similar problem. But the singular web focus of PHP means it has more of chance to develop an attractive personna.
Its not easy but its very useful to have a very clear identity. Right now the tech world goes through an ML/AI fever (and associated nightmares) and a clear vision and purpose would, for example make it obvious how the PHP ecosystem fits into new developments and the broader client/server design.