To my mind, it boils down to whether you think static types and memory management are foundational skills that a programmer is well served to learn early and bu

To my mind, it boils down to whether you think static types and memory management are foundational skills that a programmer is well served to learn early and build upon, or merely cognitive overhead that distract from what the programmer is trying to do. If the former, then obviously a language that ignores those is detrimental to long term development. If the latter, then clearly you want something like Python as your introductory language. I think either stance is defensible. Actually, I wonder if the right conclusion isn't one side or the other, but that separate tracks for systems programming vs web dev (or whatever dichotomy you prefer) should be introduced earlier on in education, maybe separate specializations within a CS degree.