PHP isn't quick. It isn't faster than other languages. It's just a tool, and if you know how to use it well, it will be faster for you.
If you want fast, build a static site. If you're iterating on your builds and doing something non-trivial, pick your tools carefully but don't be afraid to try new things.
Compared to Ruby, sure, but pretty much everything is at this point. Compared to Node JavaScript? Not even close.
They've made some impressive gains in PHP7 that others should take note of. Ruby's particularly out of shape here compared to the competition, though Python isn't exactly a speed demon either.
Yes it is comparable to Node. Most benchmarks show PHP with blocking calls against async Node calls. PHP has the tools to do async no problem. I use ReactPHP all the time to do this stuff; it works great for fast scraping.
See an older counter-point with the much slower PHP 5.5:
For anything with a server-side component, PHP might be fast if you know a lot about how to get PHP up and running properly.
Node, as a counter-example, runs on Windows and POSIX systems indifferently, and with very little effort can be a self-hosted web server for development that can be deployed to production almost effortlessly.
If you have a favorite hosting provider which better supports some tools than others, certain things will be faster, but that's because of preference and familiarity rather than any factual differences.
I think you're overestimating how much effort it is to get a PHP dev or deploy environment up and running. This isn't preference and familiarity, it's 20 years more knocking the corners off to lower the barrier to entry.
There's zero work involved in getting a static page up and running. There's minimal effort in getting Node up and running, and I'd put it forward as the new "path of least resistance" especially because of the heroic work done to make Node run properly on Windows.
Getting WAMP or whatever configured and installed, or loading the PHP module into Apache or Nginx and getting that working is a giant pain in the ass compared to either of those two things, even if you've done it a dozen times before.
If you want fast, build a static site. If you're iterating on your builds and doing something non-trivial, pick your tools carefully but don't be afraid to try new things.