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Python is good for general-purpose scripting, which does cover most of the tasks, but it’s still too bureaucratic when it comes to OS primitives. And when a small script at hand is tightly related to some OS thing anyway, it’s not a disservice to write it in shell.

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Python's main distinction from a shell scripting language is that external program invocations are not first-class citizen. Also no easy ways to feed/read the subprocess's std io.

Coming from the shell, one of the most annoying things about Python is working with files. In the shell I can read and write to files on the filesystem with basically no friction and no extra infrastructure. Just a "cat" command or a <, >, or >>. The ease at which input and output can just get tossed around in the shell is the biggest thing I end up missing when I graduate up to any "real" language.

I remember when I first learned how to work with files in Python and thought "Damn, y'all live like this?"

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