I agree. Two years ago, I tried writing data-intensive components for Python as rust extension modules. It was painful, tedious, and confusing.

I came back to it for a second try a month ago, and was blown away. PyO3 and maturin (especially maturin) are stunningly straightforward. I actually find maturin easier to use than “normal” Python packaging tools, to the extent such a thing even exists.

I really hope we will see a move towards rust, and away from extension modules written in C/C++/Fortran, just because the development experience is so much more approachable. Which is not something I thought I would say about Rust!