Anyone hard of phpBBex

[Dimetrodon]

Short for phpBB Extended, which is a fork of phpBB 3.0.14 to run on modern php and mysql versions: https://phpbbex.com/

Sadly, it's a Russian piece of software, though it has an English version.

[Silver Surfer]

Silver Surfer alias Brainex
PhpBBex Italian translation for VEG!

[Dimetrodon]

Silver Surfer alias Brainex
PhpBBex Italian translation for VEG!

I like phpBBex, though I modified the style to restore the original quote button behavior.
As for phpBB 3.0.x as a whole...
Honestly, even though there are a lot of under the hood changes, for the user, the features of all of phpBB3 seem to work in a very similar way. Most forms of advice/support seem to be timeless across all of phpBB3.

Though the old versions do feel lighter.

[Silver Surfer]

phpBBex has many positive things: it works great with PHP8.0.26 but VEG claims that it would be ready for PHP 8.2 as well;
it has an up-to-date working version of STK and UMIL, a multitude of deselectable options, a responsive style needed to be implemented for me, in fact I put Comboot.

[Silver Surfer]

A lightweight version of phpBB would be Refugee 2.

[Dimetrodon]

A lightweight version of phpBB would be Refugee 2.

I think phpBB3 is better though, phpBB2 lacks features most take for granted.