You want to be able to say all(items, lambda x: x.is_cool()) instead of all(item.is_cool() for item in items)? The second one seems clearer to me and isn't substantially longer.
Besides, I guess if `any` had a signature like
def any(xs, pred=lambda x: bool(x))
On that note, I always want the arguments of filter and reduce, but not those of map, to be reversed for some reason.
all(filter(f, items))
It's just that my first instinct is always to use all(xs, pred).