I think the context is important here - it's in the "Designing for Inheritance" section. If you're doing that, you're already pretty far in the OO thicket which

I think the context is important here - it's in the "Designing for Inheritance" section. If you're doing that, you're already pretty far in the OO thicket which a lot of Python users prefer to avoid. Actively encouraging properties is not generally a widely held view.