I think Python is at a weird place regarding data science.
If you need easy-to-use tools, R libraries cover significantly more ground than Python. You don't have to worry about 2/3 compatibility of niche libraries. Plus the functional language forces the libraries to have similar API's. You also get to use tidyverse and ggplot2 in all of their majestic beauty. At most you have to write a "%>% do() %>%" to get around weird library API choices.
However if you are in the frontier, you could avoid so much awkward notation with an array-first language like Matlab or Julia. You have "^" instead of "np.linalg.matrix_power", "/","\" instead of "np.linalg.lstsq", the . operator and so much more life-saving tools.