I think there's a few things here; some leaders in TI have long hated python and wished it would Go away, and I think they finally "won" in convincing their bos

I think there's a few things here; some leaders in TI have long hated python and wished it would Go away, and I think they finally "won" in convincing their bosses to start that process by reducing the throughput of the python team. I think it's also possible leadership wants to indicate to long-term googlers that their jobs are not safe as a way to motivate their replacements. You end up with a certain amount of complacency after a decade at google.