[disgruntledphd2]

> I also find it a bit hard to belive many people that don't come from a stats/other academic field background would readily pick R over Python for anything ML related

I agree with this, but actually suspect that it's a good thing. People without some experience of stats probably shouldn't be using ML, and if R use helps to identify these people, I'm all for it.

That being said, basically every company has standardised on Python, some for good reasons and others because of the PR Python has gotten through DL stuff.