Semi-related: what's the best place to learn the old school style of working with php, I already know laravel but it feels so far removed from normal php that I am not confident working with it on it's own.
0. Forget everything you know about php and programming in general really.
1. Make a simple web page in an html file
2. rename it to .php
3. then throw in some <?php ?> tags
4. Look up [include](https://www.php.net/manual/en/function.include.php) and not much more
5. PROFIT
At least that's how I remember writing php in high school.
The advantage of a router is basically:
please always execute this code (auth, db connection, logging, session, rate limiting, csrf protection) before running the actual code for pages that will be rendered.
Or you could also just keep using normal page.php files and possibly include a boot.php at the top of the pages to achieve the same. But then you don't get pretty URLs unless you're doing some server URL rewriting.
Come to think of it, routers require URL rewriting too.
