Better of Two Evils
I haven't used PHP for a couple years. I'm just starting the programming scene again. But it's a lot less of a pain in the a** just to pay a few dollars a month for your own webspace. Or you can probably find plenty of sites that will let you use PHP for free. I remember PhpBB used to let you request a decent amount of free webspace and bandwidth...but that involves you running a forum.
Some people like running their own servers, or like/need the experience from running their own. In cases like that using a hosting service is not an option.