Posting this as a top level rather than replying to the other threads . . .

If you look at the "getting started" Apache module developer guide you can get an idea of what sorts of hooks are provided. mod_perl allows you to write Perl (vice C code you've got to compile and build into a shared object which you've got to hard kill your server processen to change) to hook in at any of those places. Want to have something run every time a child httpd is spun up? You can just write perl. Want to implement a custom configuration directive? Again, perl. With anything that's available from CPAN at your beck and call.

That said though I will admit there's a (very, very tiny) sliver of merit to the "but everything's a distributed REST k18s service pod cluster these days, so you don't need it" arguments (in that you're likely doing a lot less in any given "service" and then you are using ngnix or the like to hide some of the complexity or shuffle things around to different backends).

Unfortunately I don't have call to use it at $work currently I used to, nor the necessary current familiarity with the apache guts to step up. Maybe it's nostalgia but it'd be a shame to see it gone.

Edit: accidentally a word.