"You can write sloppy code in any language" follows "LAMP is really easy to set up." Both of those things are true. But you know what? A quick search is all it takes to run quite a few configurations that don't involve PHP.

Honestly, this article is pretty poor, even by medium.com blogspam standards. "Sure, PHP [weaknesses here], but it gets the job done." You know what? So does Brainfuck. And the argument there would be that it'd end up being unmaintainable, but the author has already dismissed that, because hey! You can write bad code in any language, so it's not a valid argument.

It’s just one of those pointless endless debates. Just use the right tool for the right job and sometimes PHP is the right tool for the job. A developer who doesn't understand that isn't a developer worth paying.

A developer that doesn't share the author's opinion that PHP is sometimes the right tool for the [undefined] job is not "a developer worth paying?" Even if we take the arguments presented here as valid or worthwhile, the only scenarios the author has presented in which PHP is "the right tool for the job" is when either you don't have a sysadmin or are so poor at systems administration that all you can manage is a LAMP stack (RED FLAG) or you don't know anything else (because if the argument is that you can write good or bad code in any language, PHP has absolutely no advantage over anything else). I'd say that person is not qualified to choose a platform, let alone build your business.

If you're going to argue that PHP doesn't suck, at least point out its merits. The political style of "I'm not as bad as my opponent, or at least I'm no worse" doesn't work here.