The thing with Python scripting in KiCad is that it come far to early (and that Python is a rubbish language, but e skip that for a moment ...).
Yep, the lack or inability of properly defining workpackages (we have talked about that before). It sometimes seems they are doing a little here, a little there and chasing pet projects.
As a scripting language, Python is not bad. It is extremely well documented. Also, it makes it very easy for you as developer to integrate it into your application, no matter whether your target is Linux, Windows, or MacOS in whatever bitness. Well, if you consider that rubbish, i would really like to know your recommendation for a scripting language to be used in an application...
Everything that is wrong in the KiCAD core can't be fxed with scripts. At best some scripts will add some half ass patches over some of the things. At worst they will just add a pile of junk added to KiCad. You can't script a turd.
I agree with the first part; it should be common sense.
The second part, well, it's an assumption. But honestly and frankly, one i sometimes tend to share. (Not bitching about the devs or trying to lecture them, but it is not hard to understand that if there is no roadmap, hardly there will be any evolvement.)
In the old day there was this law on software development "Every program attempts to expand until it can read mail.". These days it seems on has to replace "can read mail" with "supports Python scripting". The result is the same, a rather useless feature, especially when there are still fundamental issues.
You seem to confuse the purpose of patch sets/hot fixes with the purpose of scripting. You might certainly have real-world examples where this confusion resulted in a mess. But you have to understand that such things happen because of a profound lack of understanding or plain ignorance, not because "that's the way it is".
Counter examples:
Blender, as i mentioned before. Or ULA scripts (not Python, but still scripting) in Eagle.
Basically almost any modern game engine (Seldomly, game designers define game logic and behavioral aspects in the low-level language the engine is written with. No, almost exclusively they use scripting environments).
Visual studio extensions (not necessarily scripting, but extensions nonetheless).
Etc, etc,...
Beware, you are moving on very thin ice with your argument
Now why am I not surprised? If the KiCad developers hate one thing, then it is writing documentation.
Stating the obvious, don't you
And granted, if they can't overcome their sloppiness regarding doc, whatever i said about extensions will vanish like magic smoke...