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I think the Python 2 requirement is just a mistake in the README, I'm pretty sure the node-gyp version they're using only supports python 3.

it appears to be a node application with the python2 dependency inexplicably being needed for some sort of node FFI build tool

Maybe because the initial commit was in January 2019:

It was an interesting choice even in 2019. Python 2 was sunset on January 1, 2020.

Python 3 came out in 2008.

Python 2 was an odd choice 4 years ago.