> Are our tools just worse now? Was early 2000s PHP actually good?
Not sure how rhetorical that was, but of course? PHP is a super efficient language that is tailor made to write dynamic web sites, unlike Go. The author mentions a couple of the features that made the original version easier to write and easier to maintain, they are made for the usecase, like $_GET.
And if something like a template engine is needed, like it will be if the project is a little bit bigger, then PHP supports that just fine.
> Max didn't need a request router, he just put his PHP file at the right place on the disk.
The tendency to abstract code away leads to complexity, while a real useful abstraction is about minimizing complexity. Here, the placement of PHP files makes stuff easier -> it's a good abstraction.
And that's why the original code is so much better.