Ah ok. When it came to using PHP back then I didn't even use third party frameworks. I just cherry picked things like database libraries and pulled them into my code base.
you should re-read the article. the main point is that it will solve frameworks (not exactly what the author aimed at, this I am extrapolating) reinventing everything. all utils methods will live in the proposed repository in the sky with all methods. frameworks will just contain their higher level logic, until that becomes common enough to use standard types in the util repository in the sky.
That type of stuff. The core language was about the same regardless, but the ecosystem improved dramatically.