Stephen Turnbull had this to say to a correspondent on the xemacs-beta mailing list this morning. I think it would be just as accurate if you replaced "XEmacs" with "Python".
Many of the things you request are prima facie reasonable, and we'll certainly consider them in the light of what they would cost to implement. But I rather suspect that your frustration level would drop considerably if you'd stop trying to Kung Fu XEmacs into submission, and try going with the flow, aikido-style. less-tae-bo-more-tai-chi-ly, y'rs, Skip -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list