PHP changes behaviour of core functions all the time now (and subsequently breaks old programs with every release). In every release stuff is deprecated and deprecated stuff removed. Look at https://www.php.net/manual/de/function.implode.php for a telling example and check the 8.1 changelog at https://www.php.net/releases/8.1/en.php for a list of bc breaking changes.
I never set a goalpost, so certainly didn't move it... but one very reasonable goalpost I might have set would have been "Don't let your language stagnate in a hole of bad practices on top of bad design for a decade or more while the internet fills up with content memorializing and perpetuating that state."
I'm not a PHP hater, and I'm the first to admit that what I've seen of recent work on the language is a breath of fresh air. Even in its "fractal of bad design" days, the language had its merits and has paid my bills before. But I'm also the first to admit it absolutely dug its own way into that aforementioned hole, and personally I think it is now way too late to climb back out to a point of regaining significant mindshare.
