For SSH specifically (ssh user@host "command with args") I've written this workaround pseudoshell that makes it easy to pass your argument vector to execve unmolested.
>>> import subprocess
>>> import shlex
>>> subprocess.run(['ssh', 'host', shlex.join(['ls', '-la', 'a filename with spaces'])])
ls: cannot access 'a filename with spaces': No such file or directory
>>> layer2 = ['ls', '-la', 'a filename with spaces']
>>> layer1 = ['ssh', 'host1', shlex.join(layer2)]
>>> layer0 = ['ssh', 'host0', shlex.join(layer1)]
>>> subprocess.run(layer0)
Not in the standard library, but there are packages.
>>> subprocess.run(["fish", "-c", shlex.join(["echo", "this isn\\'t working"])])
fish: Unexpected end of string, quotes are not balanced
echo 'this isn\'"'"'t working'The systems with non-POSIX non-interactive shell are firmly in the "special" category. If a user decided to set their _non_interactive_ shell to fish - they know they are heading for trouble and should not be surprised. I would not worry about such users in my scripts for example.