With each release, PHP is getting faster, and when JIT (Just-In-Time) compilation is enabled, it reaches almost the same C marks.
Many people at one time probably had a desire to easily write console and window applications. The guys of Runet sometimes wrote irreplaceable applications for solving small tasks and shared them on forums, although some of them contained small bugs.
However, times are changing, and people have begun to realize their mistakes, switching, say, to OOP.
To be nostalgic and demonstrate the new Frankenstein, we will build a full-fledged console exe application in PHP.