It's probably because most people have never made something elegant with PHP. The language is always a means to an end. It, in and of itself, will not make you a better developer. It can do a lot of work for you (frameworks) and make esoteric design patterns easier, but it always comes down to your ability to write structured, maintainable code. PHP makes it easier to hack together scripts. A majority of developers never take the next step in their life and learn the ways to properly structure a website. Chances are, if they do, it's because they've joined another language with the promise of an easier world (Rails, Python) and fail to realize you can do the exact same things in any other language - although it might required a little more understanding of its nuances (PHP).
