Python finally offloads some batteries

That pretty much confirms my point, though. There were supposedly tens of thousands of developers out there all dependent on Python 2. They couldn't *possibly* move to Python 3. They insisted Python 2 had to be maintained. A few of them, like you, may have inquired about contributing to maintenance of Python 2.

But where is the big effort to actually do it? I can't see one. There are a few basically-dead projects out there to maintain forks of Python 2.7. I don't think (?) any of them are still going. So despite all the handwringing and complaining, it turns out that the *revealed preference* of those people is actually that it's less work and more desirable for them to just port to Python 3.

It's a lot easier to complain or to inquire about something than to actually *do* it. If it were really important to you to maintain Python 2, you would have done it with a bunch of other people for whom it was important.