So like a restricted subset? That's a really neat idea; you should develop it into a paper or something.

This restricted subset concept has the huge advantage that you can slip out of the harness in a pinch. So you can reuse a relatively developed Float-less Python program in Full Python and later walk back removing floats.

That's really clever. It essentially obviates the whole configuration DSL tango; it also gets people started where the rubber hits the road -- not with syntax and parsing, but with why the DSL exists and what it's supposed to do and not do.