I think it's the exact opposite - the less C code we need the better.
Developing C code is more work. Maintaining C code is more work.
Distributing C code is more complicated. The less this is needed, the
faster PHP is, the better for everybody (except C programmers ;-) )
I was with you until "The less this is needed, the faster PHP is, the better for everybody". PHP is just a glue language on top of an awesome library of C. If more people would embrace that and quit including 1000 classes to show a simple web page then it would be better for everybody.
Brian.