If you just need value replacement yes. But you could also already do that with str.format.

I think this gives you slightly more control before interpolating.

If you want control flow inside a template, jinja and friends are probably still useful.

don't see any looping expression functionality in the PEP

No. Not really intended to be a replacement for jinja. But it also depends on how you use jinja. If you use only very basic functionality of jinja, maybe.