There's a mention of it in the "Motivation" page on the GitHub wiki. Basically the big thing seems to be the feedback from Linux users that most distributions bundle Python but not Node. Also that AWS and Google CLI tools are still more Python than Node.
I am the author of the Motivation page; the choice of language was really focused on what's best for partners and customers; I believe either language could have "done the job".
> Basically (..) most distributions bundle Python but not Node. Also that AWS and Google CLI tools are still more Python than Node.
Good ole' inveteracy. Unfortunately, it's really as good a reason as any when it comes to managing resources on a long-term project (people, time, $).
Always needs to be balanced against using the right tool for the job, even if that means the initial pain of carrying a codebase written in a "relatively" newer language. To be clear, both Python and JS (NodeJS) are great tools with excellent communities and ecosystems.
My IBM developerWorks tutorial on writing command line utilities (C) is not at that IBM link in post now (archived after 10 years), but can be found here:
I think a part of it must be that writing synchronous code in NodeJS is nowhere near as elegant as in Python. We started writing some tooling in NodeJS (for dealing with REST API's in particular, posting and receiving JSON, which is native to JavaScript so should be perfect), but ended up reverting to Python mainly for this reason.
Not that I'm complaining. Love Python, dislike JS being everywhere.