I feel that Python has (among many, many other things) replaced Matlab and the likes. These were the go-to "prototyping" languages people in science, R&D, etc.

I feel that Python has (among many, many other things) replaced Matlab and the likes. These were the go-to "prototyping" languages people in science, R&D, etc. used (and still use!), and then you'd port those into more manageable languages for larger scale projects, or actual software products. These days, Python does all that. Unless you need some extreme performance for your final product, a well-optimized Python program will work just fine. But still, there's some of that matlab legacy left - instead of one comprehensive application, you have tons of smaller programs floating around, for one-off/single-issue uses.