[tasty_freeze]

First, someone might prefer python on a microcontroller for the same reasons one might prefer python on any other system: interactive development, clean string and list handling, no need to explicitly manage memory, familiarity with the language ...

Now that one can buy a 100+ MHz 32b CPU with 256KB RAM and 1MB of FLASH for $5 (and dropping), using assembly or C to make it fit into an 8b PIC with 2KB of RAM to save $3 isn't a worthwhile trade off for many applications.