That was one of my first questions, but Anaconda exists https://www.anaconda.com/download/
Python is used by loads of scientists, academics, and other non software engineers. Those people need an easy way to use python.
Python is used by loads of scientists, academics, and other non software engineers. Those people need an easy way to use python.
If you want to have a platform that allow to manage Python on all machines, including allowed packages and version, integrated with ldap, with auditing capabilities, they are pretty much the only game in town.
And big companies want that.
[1]: https://www.anaconda.com/blog/announcing-python-in-excel-nex...
Today I would say anaconda brings more problems than it solves (https://www.bitecode.dev/p/why-not-tell-people-to-simply-use), but at the time, we didn't have wheels for everything, and it was a life saver for anybody that wanted to use c extensions.
So anaconda became first popular because it solved a real end user problem, then it moved on to be the corporation providers because it already was well known.
It was a very good strategy.
PyPI distributed wheels (you can obviously build wheels however you like, but that doesn't mean they'll run on others' systems) may at some point get close to what conda does (likely by reinventing it in an ad-hoc fashion), but there's enough mindshare (especially around its target of "data science", where all the tutorials are around using conda) that I don't see it disappearing.
They were never big outside Windows shops.