Python's subprocess is a bit more clumsy than Perl's built in features for running commands, with the proviso that running commands in Perl is best described as "idiomatic". Maybe if you didn't learn it 20 years ago like I did you'd have a hard time with its irregularity and colloquialisms.

Is there any non-shell scripting language that makes it as easy as shell to run external commands, redirect I/O etc.? I don't know of any. (Perhaps that is the very definition of a shell.)