I suggest you update yourself on the monetary incentives/benefits for employees that US frontier labs provide. 75k is a drop in the bucket of the amount of money those employees gain in an IPO event, let alone bonuses.

You should also upgrade yourself on what people expect nowadays. Might not be top talent but before I return to an office, hell will freeze over.

If Zig, which is much smaller than PHP, can attract a lot of money (relatively speaking, for its size): what is the PHP Foundation doing differently?

I did my taxes on paper instead of digitally this year because of the same anti-computer feeling. It’s a very magnificent feeling, I do find it kind of interesting how I came to feel this way.

They are already partially funded by Google.

I feel it's image management and a bet. If they succeed, Google profits. If they don't succeed it doesn't matter, it's still a signal to the market/wallstreet that there's no "bad blood" between them and Google and that they won't be cannibalizing Google's current interest.

I immediately recognized the avatar of this person. They are the one with the DIY soft drinks which has been posted on HN before: https://blinry.org/diy-soft-drinks/

I know him for a scrollbar demo. Seems he does a lot of stuff. Great guy. File him next to lcamtuf.