I have used a bunch of MVC PHP frameworks. All the ones I used are fine. Useful if you are making a whole full-round-trip site in PHP.

If you just want to learn PHP to make REST APIs for consumption by a SPA (which PHP excels at, IMHO), and you are an experienced dev, I highly recommend vanilla PHP. You simply do not need a whole framework just to route requests.

I have been avoiding Node.js, I just philosophically dislike the concept. I want to try other languages. A few weeks back I finally tried making a Hello World level API with ASP.NET Core in C# and it was like stepping into a new dimension of existence. I, for one, absolutely love that feeling.