First, I doubt that the SLOC conversion ratio between sh and Python is really as high as 10x. Second, yes, I do think the 5000 line Python script would be more

First, I doubt that the SLOC conversion ratio between sh and Python is really as high as 10x. Second, yes, I do think the 5000 line Python script would be more maintainable than than the 500 line sh script. I'd choose real types and data structures any day of the week.