You really think you find a lot of cringe worthy stuff from a guy that can code but just isn't familiar with the language? I tend to find a good coder might take the long way around sometimes in a language they're not familiar with because they aren't aware a certain utility function might exist. But the logic is still sound so not really anything I think is awful.

Unless you mean something like a php coder tries his hand at c++ and the result is ugly because he's used to the sloppy style allowed by php then I definitely see your point. But that's more the result of a sloppy programmer, php might have enabled it, but there's no reason someone cutting their teeth on php can't or shouldn't learn how to code properly.

Tl;dr: I guess I see your point.