PHP has changed a lot since 2012 when that article was written, both as a language and as a community. But I would say even back when this person wrote that article, they were just bummed that it wasn't the language they actually wanted to use. PHP is a perfectly capable language, you can get stuff done in it, not every piece of code needs to be an homage to computer science.

Not much have changed in PHP since 2012, relating to his exact criticisms. I've yet to meet a good developer who likes the language, but I've met many who like it.

Can you suggest another language that effectively allows inline templating like PHP does, and has a huge set of libraries available?

PHP runs more of the "web" than you probably realise - some of the highest trafficked websites in the world, in fact. It's fine done properly. The bad press from 20 years ago is pretty much unwarranted these days. Also, if wordpress had been written in RoR or Perl/something else, plenty of the PHP bad press would have been avoided.

There are too many to mention, even Clojure supports inline templating, but it's a horrible design pattern. Have a look at Enlive instead if you want something close but solid.

Could you provide a link to Enlive? I can’t find anything relevant. Thanks!