You can use emacs to run elisp the exact same way you'd use a python script, emacs is pretty much an elisp shell. And there is no loss of flexibility, emacs doe

You can use emacs to run elisp the exact same way you'd use a python script, emacs is pretty much an elisp shell. And there is no loss of flexibility, emacs doesn't reimplement everything from the ground up and most features are reliant on "shell programs". Dired for example is pretty much a sophisticated skin over an ls call if i'm not mistaken.