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I am not an evangelist of any form, but running python code with pypy isn't that bad in terms of performance (especially given the ease of writing the actual code), and you can use type hints if you like since 3.5 : https://docs.python.org/3/library/typing.html

You might find Nim[1] to be a worthy alternative. I primarily see it as a compiled Python with good performance and static typing.

1 - https://nim-lang.org

Oh, usually I am wary of trying new languages but this looks very cool indeed.

I hate Python also - supposed to be this magic low barrier to entry language, but as soon as I want to do anything of substance I start encountering just as much complexity as any other language, only the documentation is worse, and the libraries I want to use are in one way or another a nightmare. I don't buy the hype, use it reluctantly when I have to.

You're not alone. The only place I like Python is as a replacement for shell scripting.