A lot of these gripes are unfair and don't really matter IMO. I think complaining about things as trivial as syntax is really just scratching the surface and do

A lot of these gripes are unfair and don't really matter IMO. I think complaining about things as trivial as syntax is really just scratching the surface and doesn't serve your conclusion. A dictionary is an interchangeable word with hashmap in most situations. The string 'quirks' actually look to be pretty helpful. Gripes I do actually agree with: the schism in versions, mutation from pass by ref (although this isn't different from JS, Java or any other OO lang). In my opinion you can add OOP in general to the list of gripes against python.