"I didn't learn how to structure big projects until I moved to better languages that encourage (through defaults) better practices."
Do you think that PHP is the only language where developers look to other practices in other language communities to learn different/new/better/changing practices? Every good developer is aware of patterns and structures in other languages/platforms - I dare say it's almost the definition of a good developer. I would not regard a Ruby developer who'd only ever done Rails projects as a 'good' developer, regardless of how clean/elegant the code seems.
Do you think that PHP is the only language where developers look to other practices in other language communities to learn different/new/better/changing practices? Every good developer is aware of patterns and structures in other languages/platforms - I dare say it's almost the definition of a good developer. I would not regard a Ruby developer who'd only ever done Rails projects as a 'good' developer, regardless of how clean/elegant the code seems.