One advantage powerful web utilities have over PHP is that you can install a CGI program on any server without needing to install and rely on an interpreter. If you upgrade from Powtils version 1.3 to 1.6, or 1.3 to 2.0, you do not have any fear of what PHP installation your web host has installed. You can install your own powerful web utilitites on any shared server - but you cannot install your own PHP version on any shared server.
If you were using PHP 3 and upgraded your server to PHP 5, many of your web programs may break because of all sorts of changes that occur on your server after installing a new interpreter. If you install two interpreters, one to run your old PHP 3 programs, and another to run your PHP 5 programs, and another to run your PHP 4 programs this becomes very confusing and inefficient.
Some servers have several interpreters installed such as Perl1, Perl2, Python1, Python2, Ruby1, Ruby2, PHP3, PHP4, PHP5, and YetAnotherLanguage1. And also YetAnotherLanguage2, but also YetAnotherLanguage3. If 20 or 30 scripting language interpreters are installed on a system, the benefits of interpreters start to diminish. If only one interpreter was installed on a system, that interpreter would be very efficient - maybe even more efficient than a bunch of compiled programs. However, this is not the case since people have different tastes - and all sorts of interpreters need to be installed and maintained.
With CGI programs there is no interpreter worry. If there is a bug in the interpreter, you don't have to worry - because their ain't an interpreter. You just upload your program, no matter what version of Powtils you are using. If you need to use the dynamic version of Powtils, there is no installation required - you just upload the library to a folder, set your path in a config file - and way you go. In PHP you cannot even control your PHP INI file on many web hosts. In Powtils you have full control over the INI/config file. Powtils is built to be powerful on shared web hosts, not just dedicated servers.
So you see there are advantages to scripting languages on the surface, such as quickly being able to upload your script without compiling it. People always mention this. But there are also deeper advantages to CGI programming.
Another advantage with the powerful web utilities, is being able to choose structured programming over sloppy programming. With the powerful web utilities, you still have the power to write programs in the sloppiest manner possible (like many PHP programs) - however you are working with a language that encourages you not to be sloppy.
Another advantage is that powerful web utilitites give you access to power, a lot of power. With the powerful web utils you can utilize existing C libraries, existing Delphi code, Delphi libraries, TurboPascal source code, and more. In PHP at the time of writing, there is no easy way to call C functions from a library or call pascal functions from a Pascal library. One can write PHP extensions but they are not the same power. With the powerful web utils one can link a C library directly and you have access to millions of lines of C/Pascal/Delphi/FPC alogorithms and data structures.