[adrusi]

I'd argue that that's significantly worse at conveying the intent than the shell script version.

The shell script started as a workflow that was executed repeatedly, manually, from the shell, and then automated. Naturally, the shell script resembles very closely they commands typed in at the shell, with some added code to encode the part of the routine that was executed in the user's head.

The python script doesn't look anything like the routine that was previously entered at the shell. That makes it harder to tell at a glance that this script does the same thing.

It it horrible? No absolutely not. If you're working on a team where everyone knows python but not everyone is comfortable with shell scripts, then writing the script in python is the clear best option. But if you're working on a team where everyone is comfortable with both python and shell scripts, the shell script probably wins out.