True, Matlab has its limitations, but those are partly unavoidable. If you want to build a large object oriented program, you often use something more heavyweight anyway. But that heavyweight language (or framework) is usually not so quick to build something in anymore, because your heavyweight structures are just in the way in the earlier phase.

I tried Python and Numpy, and the vectors, matrices and all that felt just tacked on and the syntax was much more complex compared to Matlab. Maybe it's changed since. Also in Scilab the type conversions and function overhead are a nuisance. Every time you edit a script or function, you have to specifically reload it before running it. Makes rapid prototyping about three fold as time consuming. Would it be hard to make the software notice I actually edited something?

Many people actually want to solve problems, and they just end up creating a program as a side product. They do not set out to study libraries and do not want to actually write any code that is not directly related to the problem they are solving.

It's why Matlab is able to charge the price. It sometimes saves time. Some of the users are not primarily software developers but are quite educated and intelligent and their salary is not small.