Because python was the cool thing a few years ago, and it managed to get traction in a lot of places because it was pretty easy and included a lot of tools. It'

Because python was the cool thing a few years ago, and it managed to get traction in a lot of places because it was pretty easy and included a lot of tools. It's also taught as an intro language now. So now you have to deal with people who are poopooing it because it doesn't have enough nerd cred like some like some other dynlang. Shell scripting has some other issues though. While most Bourne derived shells look similar, they have different extensions and capabilities. So only a subset of scripts will work everywhere.