Technically macOS doesn’t come with Python pre-installed, but it does provide you with a simple path to do it.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44580198

The removal was in Monterey. Catalina and its successor Big Sur very much still had it. Catalina was the one that removed 32-bit support.

If you have access to their MacBook and can open a terminal, even `rsync` (which comes preinstalled) would do the job.

It seems much more likely to me they were just tired of having to manage the languages (and being constantly criticised they were behind) and simply chose to remove them.

This doesn't make much sense. With physical access, I could easily just download python and do the same thing. Or anything else.

macOS dropped PHP recently too—doing a wonderful job of losing all that developer share that Apple was slowly building up.

Why? Installing python and php can be done in 2 seconds with brew, and you have control over what you install instead of using whatever is in the system, with deprecated versions, etc. It is actually much better now. System tool should be left to the system.

Virtually zero professional developers that I know use built in Python or PHP. Maybe it’s good enough for occasional scripting purposes, though.

I think it’s better for developers to not have conflicting system distributions.

Though for a while there having built in interpreters was great for kids and learners.

I much prefer installing it myself, with the required version for my project and at a known and common location.

That's fair enough. It may be less of an issue for experienced developers, but for those looking to learn the craft, it's one more barrier.

if you install commandline tools there's

/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/Library/Frameworks/Python3.framework/