Would I still need to learn PHP if I can find my way round Drupal? I hear its a steep learning curve. Learning new programming/scripting languages whenever you what to deploy something new on an already existing platform is just plain STRESS!!! Thank u 4 ur lovely contributions, i wait patiently.
PHP from scratch, with no prior coding experience, you're in for a loooong ride. And especially if you're thinking about creating your own CMS from scratch with PHP. Drupal is relatively easy to learn your way around, and if/when you decide to learn PHP, studying the API's they've already created is a very good learning experience.
Yes, definitely an alternative, and a much easier one. There are thousands of programmers, experienced, that have contributed to the drupal project so that you would be able to get to making a site faster than trying to learn php.