Yes, if you know what program you want to write then in Python (+ NumPy, Matplotlib, et al) vs Matlab, Python wins but if you are a) exploring a problem space speculatively and b) skilled in your knowledge domain but producing a piece of software is not your final goal, then Matlab wins hands down. It doesn't try to be a general-purpose programming language, it is honed over years to do exactly what control engineers want to do day-to-day.

It's like Python is a better programming environment than Excel too, but spreadsheets aren't going away anytime soon (it remains to be seen whether Python + OOo wins over the long term)

Mathworks could do a lot worse than bolt on an optional Python front-end. What people pay for Matlab for is the toolboxes, really.