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Python still uses mark and sweep occasionally to clean up structures where reference counting fails.

It has optional cycle detection, yep. But... you could also just spend a couple of minutes to not have cyclic references.

Closures are objects that can participate in cycles. And the lifetime of closures is very hard to track statically.

They are and they should be used responsibly. I’d argue sparingly also.

"A couple of minutes"

Just a little bit overconfident.