[ilyak]

But it still has 1000+ functions in the default namespace?

And every file still starts with <? And if one of them doesn't, then your web app would fail epically because you were gzipping your output into your output stream (one and only one), and this extra space in one of files ruined your gzip.

To be fair, it's wonderful that complex PHP apps ever work. It's a complete surprise to me, I'd say they run-by-accident.