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What prevents someone from “just” making a sort-of JIT compiler by converting Python to JavaScript at runtime and then running the generated JS through V8? Then you could reuse a lot of the optimizations in these JS engines, and the interface between them could just be a thin translation layer between the two languages.

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Probably the same problem that prevents a JVM based Python from being popular. There are many popular libraries that use C extensions. Without those the platform isn't usable for many use cases, and it just becomes a niche platform.

The optimisations are around the javascript types, such as the number (float) and the object (which has string properties, a prototype chain, etc). Once you have to express all the Python semantics, like arbitrary precision integers or multiple inheritance, the optimisations no longer "skip" much of the work.

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