What if you want to create an instance of other type of dictionary? {} works only for built-in dicts.

and then you get an int instead of a string and your python app explodes. let's not start on "sensible modern" languages.

Yes, you do get bugs in Python due to variables being the wrong type... however the time it takes to fix them is vastly less than the time it takes to write the reams of boilerplate that Java requires (not to mention the cognitive overload caused by said reams of boilerplate).

My ideal would be an optionally typed language.