[ifore]

nginx buildpack + python buildpack == nginx to serve static content and gunicorn for the python backend. Of course you now have to know how to set up an nginx config file so it does take away somewhat from the "just works" simplicity of Heroku.

Although even whitenoise is still ok if you're going to set it up with a CDN as the frontend for your static assets. If you want simplicity then you do it using one of the CDN addons.

Whitenoise is not a limitation of the heroku platform, it's really a symptom of suboptimal documentation.