It seems pretty clear to me that the best language to use for numerical linear algebra is the language you know and a good curriculum would be structured in a way where your first encounter with a language is not a course where the choice of language is nearly irrelevant.

You would think. I was a TA for numerical methods for undergrad engineers. Saw lots of bright students who understood the material but could debug their code. Several grad students started a 1credit seminar course on Fortran fundamentals. We worked those students like dogs, but when they took the numerical methods course they came back and thanked us because they knew how to get their code to compile and how to use the admin graphics package.