> Python's age doesn't mean that we can't or shouldn't criticize it.
I don't disagree, but for people paying attention, it's become really boring. "I've just switched from $language to Python [because work told me to], and this is what I hate" is almost a parody, at this point. It's a sign the ecosystem has reached ungodly proportions.
> If virtualenv or conda are such good solutions, why do so few projects seem to use them or deploy with them?
I don't know about conda, but venv/virtualenv was the deployment standard before Docker happened (I'd argue it still is, for people who won't/can't use containers). Personally, I still like to use venvs even in docker.
> If popularity or ubiquity are the measure
How do you measure popularity? So often the pip hate seems to come from a very loud minority. Meanwhile, the ecosystem continues to expand and people keep using pip/venv without any problem, because it works for most cases (now that wheels have fixed the "can't build on Windows" issue) and it's simple enough. Somebody upthread compares pip with Maven, and it makes me laugh: the Java ecosystem is shrinking and the Python one is exploding, and stuff like the user experience of Maven vs pip is among the reasons.
> there's still a problem to be solved
Of course there is, there is always one; I'm sure that you'll find Cargo critics too, once that community grows enough, and there are plenty of loud NPM haters. Trying to be all things to everyone takes careful reasoning and herding - because it's a political problem as well as a technical one, in a polis that keeps growing. Shouting PIP SUCKS!!111!! is only going to result in more crap like pipenv. The shortcomings of pip have well-known for a while, but the solution is not trivial, as pipenv demonstrated.
> A language should direct programmers to styles of system design that makes system management easy and clear
That's like, your opinion, man. One of the strengths of Python is that it's just as structured as you want it to be, and no more - even when that might not satisfy someone's arbitrary definition of a Platonic application.
I'm not sure where you get the idea that the Java ecosystem is shrinking when every quantifiable measure (stack overflow polls and data releases, GitHub data) point in the other direction.
Further, if you factor in the growth of languages like Kotlin and Scala the JVM is blowing Python out of the water.
I don't disagree, but for people paying attention, it's become really boring. "I've just switched from $language to Python [because work told me to], and this is what I hate" is almost a parody, at this point. It's a sign the ecosystem has reached ungodly proportions.
> If virtualenv or conda are such good solutions, why do so few projects seem to use them or deploy with them?
I don't know about conda, but venv/virtualenv was the deployment standard before Docker happened (I'd argue it still is, for people who won't/can't use containers). Personally, I still like to use venvs even in docker.
> If popularity or ubiquity are the measure
How do you measure popularity? So often the pip hate seems to come from a very loud minority. Meanwhile, the ecosystem continues to expand and people keep using pip/venv without any problem, because it works for most cases (now that wheels have fixed the "can't build on Windows" issue) and it's simple enough. Somebody upthread compares pip with Maven, and it makes me laugh: the Java ecosystem is shrinking and the Python one is exploding, and stuff like the user experience of Maven vs pip is among the reasons.
> there's still a problem to be solved
Of course there is, there is always one; I'm sure that you'll find Cargo critics too, once that community grows enough, and there are plenty of loud NPM haters. Trying to be all things to everyone takes careful reasoning and herding - because it's a political problem as well as a technical one, in a polis that keeps growing. Shouting PIP SUCKS!!111!! is only going to result in more crap like pipenv. The shortcomings of pip have well-known for a while, but the solution is not trivial, as pipenv demonstrated.
> A language should direct programmers to styles of system design that makes system management easy and clear
That's like, your opinion, man. One of the strengths of Python is that it's just as structured as you want it to be, and no more - even when that might not satisfy someone's arbitrary definition of a Platonic application.