Create vs Reuse

If you wanted to create your website which option would you choose:

1) Roll your own from scratch

2) Roll your own on top of some framework (like CakePHP)

3) Modify an existing software package (e.g. WordPress, MoveableType, etc)

>>12

True.  But there are a lot of things in PHP that you would need Perl modules for that may or may not be installed by default with your hosting provider.  If they were part of the default Perl install it might force the fact, but in that case the depth of PHP's internal libs can be a benefit.  The downside is that there are a lot of things in PHP that most people will never use and you're forced to have all that extra in there.