Does Gentoo really have this level of penetration? How did you get python on the machine in the first place? Any distribution worth using for LAMP already pro

Does Gentoo really have this level of penetration? How did you get python on the machine in the first place? Any distribution worth using for LAMP already provides everything you need for a base install for this already compiled and packaged. Pure <your favorite language> implementations are useful from a portability, testing/verification, and avoiding vendor lock-in perspective, but the problem of "How do I get the libraries I need on all the machines" has long since been solved. In fact, using a packaging system like dpkg or rpm will make it easy to determine if you're missing anything, since they can list everything that is installed via packages.