"also it is amazing to me that shells still exist in more-or-less the same form. dear god can I just get a terminal that runs something like Python directly?"

But what does this have to do with programming

Is this suggesting that operating a computer via a shell is "programming"

(It's possible to administer a computer running UNIX by using a shell, without knowing any programming languages^1)

"dear god, can i just get a terminal that runs soemthing like Python directly?"

Assuming "dear god" is a figure of speech, who would be the person(s) responsible for delivering on this request

Many years ago, during experimentation, I changed the program launched by init to a program other than a Bourne shell by editing one line of init.c

That "shells still exist in more-or-less the same form" is probably one of the reasons I like them so much

1. Assuming one believes the shell is not a programming language

of course operating a computer via a shell is programming...

you can also write shell programs in standalone files!