[slurgfest]

Having used Python in anger for some years I have never encountered anything like this (scripts with mutually incompatible dependencies, really?) It sounds like you ran into some specific package which was poorly made or had a bad release, or perhaps just a package which should have had its dependencies pegged at specific versions?

I'm completely lost as to why you think this is a problem with Python or its standard library. (Except that this seems like an opportune venue to bash a perceived competitor to your favorites)

It was years before I even saw any need to use virtualenv, (and that was because of misbehaving packages from Google and a desire never to modify PYTHONPATH again).

About documentation, again I feel strongly that you must have used some specifically bad package and again I can't say how I see that to be an inherent flaw with Python or its standard library.

"Pure" is one of the last things I'd call Python. For example, imperative constructs are jumbled with OO constructs and functional constructs.