PHP vs. Laravel is kind of the same debate I have with seeing people throwing in entire frameworks to create a single page site. I tend to use pure PHP when working on a new project with some rather unique requirements ( usually SEO, pulling in CSV files, large cache needs, etc.).

Usually, my projects do not stay in raw PHP for very long. Once they start to take shape, and we have a better idea of the project's requirements, it starts to make sense to port the larger projects over into a framework.

Starting with a framework can often force decisions you might not have made if framework requirements were not guiding you.