I don't think anyone is saying that python syntax has reached such an apex of perfection that it cannot be improved. The two issues that drive this moratorium

I don't think anyone is saying that python syntax has reached such an apex of perfection that it cannot be improved. The two issues that drive this moratorium are the alternate implementations need to catch up with the current state of python. And, more importantly in my view; the need to focus attention on overhauling the standard library and porting it and external packages to python3. This is a resource allocation shift, that's all.