What I find interesting about PHP (among many laughably bad things about it) is that one of its key strengths for beginners is the easy mode-switch between scripted and verbatim mode (i.e. <?php and ?>), but all the large software projects whose code I've read used some kind of templating.

I agree with the sentiments around here, though. If the goal is to write software that works and hopefully makes money, do what you know and ignore this year's hot new framework/language. Write readable code in case you need to refactor it later.