Here's their justification for using it. It makes sense to me.
https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0518/#overview-of-file-f...
https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0518/#overview-of-file-f...
From the link. Makes sense I think.
Once TOML hits 1.0 I plan to work on getting a TOML parser into Python's stdlib.
(disclaimer: I am one of the co-authors of PEP 518 that apparently handled things in way that was "a little absurd" .)