Why is it moronic, google may place loss of points for .php files if they so desire
If you notice anything you notice that pdf files seem to get good higher rankings
Gee you think they know a pdf file is a more meaningful document so why not give it more ranking points.
I personally have adult search engines that dont rank php or cgi files at all
I dont see many .php files when searching google. Thumbs up for asking a qreat question, but you shouldnt worry about this at all, make good sites with content
and get links and youll start getting real valid worthy traffic
When you try to cheat the system you'll see no results or temporary results.
However with all that said, just keep the top of your page very clean with little garbage such as <script> crap and other nonsense html, the top of your page is very important
Heres a tip for you..
let's say your site is dealing in golf
why use index.php when you can use anything
DirectoryIndex golf.php golf.shtml golf.html golf.htm
http://www.mydomain.com/golf.php will give you alot better results
then
http://www.mydomain.com/index.php will