This is NOT true. Functional programming, AFAIKC, is a cool thing, and in-fashion, increases productivity & readability, and an indispensable thing for a flexible scripting lang. The inline/lambda function is feature is shared by many lang. which I frequently use, MATLAB/R/Python/etc. Well, you can say apply() is 'deprecated' now, (which is another functional thing I like), but I am still using it. I am not a desperate person who uses higher-order function factory a lot, but if lambda keyword is removed, I swear I will not use the python anymore.
-- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list