stylesheetparser and php

I've installed v3.6. Does the stylesheet parser also work when using php to integrate the editor? I see the provided examples expect javascript to be used vs php.

What I've tried:

In config.js

config.extraPlugins = 'stylesheetparser';
config.contentsCss = 'correctpath/thestyles.css';

I've done nothing to the code on the editor instance page. I want the same stylesheet to be pulled in every instance without me having to add to to the instance itself.

The result is the delivered stylesheet loads and mine is ignored (because I have commented out my custom config.stylesSet line in config.js).

I have separately tried adding the following to config.js as well by mimicking the js instructions which results in no styles being shown.

config.stylesSet = '';

What I do I need to do differently with the php method?