This system of installation is so slow and very tedious.
phpBB is looking to advance into the next decade, not keep the same features that are making it lag behind the other main forums.
myBB, your main free competitor, even has a very EASY AND FAST plugin system which requires none to a little bit of editing files. Unlike, phpBB which still is lagging behind and takes many many editsand takes a long time to search and find the code.
This is why phpBB is losing beginners because they are giving up on the forum because to install a simple "who was online today plugin" it takes about 10-15 minutes for a beginner, unlike myBB, vBulletin which take approximately 2 seconds[Not even kidding].
This is why users are switching out of phpBB into myBB and vBulletin.
Let's push phpBB into the next decade.