You're assuming that shell and Python which do the same thing are equivalently readable to a proficient user. As someone who frequently uses both, I would stron

You're assuming that shell and Python which do the same thing are equivalently readable to a proficient user. As someone who frequently uses both, I would strongly disagree with that. I have inherited lengthy shell scripts which probably took as long to read as it would have taken to learn Python. I would argue that a well written Python script is going to be more comprehensible to the average sysadmin than an equivalent shell script, even assuming the sysadmin is more conversant in shell. More portable and testable (!!) too.