Python, like all dynamic languages, works best to bash out a new project into production ASAP, get a bonus and move on, while poor folks maintaining after you are trying to untangle it.
"People who know one language think it's the greatest in the world. People who know more than one think they all suck."
The Blub paradox: http://www.paulgraham.com/avg.html
(BTW, the TL;DR is people that know more than one language admit they all fall short one way or another, but there are some languages that are more productive than others).
“Strings and string formatting” is a very broad domain.
For most specific tasks, there is one low-impedance approach and it takes very little (but not zero) reflection and/or experience to find it.
Most new Python features directly address specific tasks for which there are currently multiple relatively high-impedance approaches taken because there is not one obviously correct way.
Python's “one obviously correct way” is not “one possible way” (the latter approach is closer to Go.)