It all depends what you're using it for. If I'm writing code that's going to be around awhile and can tolerate some dependencies, I'll totally use, say, request

It all depends what you're using it for. If I'm writing code that's going to be around awhile and can tolerate some dependencies, I'll totally use, say, requests. But I use urllib2 from the repl all the time, especially if I'm on a machine that isn't mine. The fact that any Mac already has the tools on it to grab some JSON from an API, parse it, and do something useful with it from the command line, without having to download or install anything, is immensely useful, even if the API is a bit suboptimal. The same applies to quick and dirty things I'm shoving into a Gist to share with colleagues. Not all things have to be elegant to be useful. (That said, those kinds of usecases aren't really in Rust's wheelhouse, so I still think in Rust's case having batteries not included is probably the right call.)