I use CodeIgniter, have done for about 4 years now.
I never even think about high level stuff like "what language should I code in" anymore. It doesn't matter to the end user. CodeIgniter allows me to do anything I want, elegantly and with a small footprint.
It's a means to an end and eventually like you said, you stop caring about the "means". It's the "end" that matters - i.e. how well you execute. Using RoR (for example) as opposed to PHP has zero impact on that.
Yeah, you could argue that another language might get code down quicker or more elegantly but to the same "end". (Experience largely negates the quicker bit)
You might also argue that at scale PHP may eventually come back to bite you, but your not at scale at the moment and the majority of us should be thinking about the best way for us to deliver v1, not the best way for us to deal with 1 million users.
I never even think about high level stuff like "what language should I code in" anymore. It doesn't matter to the end user. CodeIgniter allows me to do anything I want, elegantly and with a small footprint.
It's a means to an end and eventually like you said, you stop caring about the "means". It's the "end" that matters - i.e. how well you execute. Using RoR (for example) as opposed to PHP has zero impact on that.