What? It's not second-tier at all, every single feature in Python is in sync with TypeScript, the library versions are in sync, and the docs for all the languages are auto-generated. They're not second-tier, they're 100% single tier.
Also, the tooling you need to drive CDK is all TS-based, which means I now need to think about NPM and Node versions occasionally, which are not relevant in any other part of my workflow.
Admittedly as someone in scientific computing I am unusually far from the JS/TS ecosystem - but all I can tell you is that it feels second tier as a user.