OK here is a analogy that fits: PHP is like a piece of Quartersawn Oak. One craftsmen makes a piece of Stickley furniture. The wood worker at home with an identical piece of wood makes ashtrays. But since we have far more cigarette smokers than furniture collectors you see many more ashtrays. PHP needs more craftsmen.

OK very simple relies on 5 basic lines of PHP and allows you to import PHP functions but has any one tried XML XSL as a blogging platform? No it does not make you look cool or get your whites whiter but the PHP you do use is now simple and straight forward. I use it for blogish type code all the time.