When was the last time you saw a NodeJS package that expects to be able to compile Fortran code at installation time?
If you want Numpy (one of the most popular Python packages) on a system that doesn't have a pre-built wheel, you'll need to do that. Which is why there are, by my count, 54 different pre-built wheels for Numpy 2.2.1.
And that's just the actual installation process. Package management isn't solved because people don't even agree on what that entails.
The only way you avoid "worry about modifying the global environment" is to have non-global environments. But the Python world is full of people who refuse to understand that concept. People would rather type `pip install suspicious-package --break-system-packages` than learn what a venv is. (And they'll sometimes do it with `sudo`, too, because of a cargo-cult belief that this somehow magically fixes things - spoilers: it's typically because the root user has different environment variables.)
If you want Numpy (one of the most popular Python packages) on a system that doesn't have a pre-built wheel, you'll need to do that. Which is why there are, by my count, 54 different pre-built wheels for Numpy 2.2.1.
And that's just the actual installation process. Package management isn't solved because people don't even agree on what that entails.
The only way you avoid "worry about modifying the global environment" is to have non-global environments. But the Python world is full of people who refuse to understand that concept. People would rather type `pip install suspicious-package --break-system-packages` than learn what a venv is. (And they'll sometimes do it with `sudo`, too, because of a cargo-cult belief that this somehow magically fixes things - spoilers: it's typically because the root user has different environment variables.)
Which is why this thread happened on the Python forums https://discuss.python.org/t/the-most-popular-advice-on-the-... , and part of why the corresponding Stack Overflow question https://stackoverflow.com/questions/75608323 has 1.4 million views. Even though it's about an error message that was carefully crafted by the Debian team to tell you what to do instead.