> most data scientists

It's hard to generalise for all data scientists everywhere, but that is not my experience.

Data transformation (80% of the job) is very functional and so objects systems don't matter much.

But when you are training neural nets in Python you are probably using a framework of some type. Torch in R looks very object orientation'y .

The issue is not that object orientation is fundamentally needed for data science, but when you install a random object orientated R library you get a random R object system or pseudo-object system that needs to be reasoned about.

It is a pity R didn't just ditch object systems or adopt a limited simple system like Lua's table approach.