I am a mathematician by training (+CS), I've worked in Matlab quite a bit, I've taught hundreds of students in it (having no say in language, but we're about to

I am a mathematician by training (+CS), I've worked in Matlab quite a bit, I've taught hundreds of students in it (having no say in language, but we're about to switch to Python), and I probably see even more reasons not to use it than you do. (I haven't done ML in it, but I'd be astounded if it wasn't terrible compared to Python and its ecosystem.) I recommend avoiding Matlab for every use case unless they've got you trapped with a huge existing code base or reliance on a proprietary toolbox.