I don't agree on the 'span of satan' or 'nightmare' comments,there are enough good frameworks out there that make it easy to also get the simplest of things done using Java. I even helped develop one of them; JAG.
EJB 1.x before X-doclet, now that was a nightmare
That said I can understand the preference for PHP for Web development.
Because it's less stringent it's easier to write crappy code in PHP, but that's almost always more a reflection on the coder (instead of a developer) than anything else.
What I miss the most in PHP is the tools that make 'professional' developent possible.
I had a stab for example at setting up the Moodle project I work on in Jenkins, to run the Unit tests and execute Sonar for quality assurance. That failed misserably because the php tools could not handle a project the size of Moodle.
Anne (Certified Java Programmer by using the Exam Cram Book(s) ).