Of the things matlab has going for it, looking just like the math is pretty far down the list. Numpy is a bit more verbose but still 1-to-1 with the whiteboard. The last big pain point was solved (https://peps.python.org/pep-0465/) with the dedicated matmul operator in python 3.5.
Real advantages of matlab:
* Simulink
* Autocoding straight to embedded
* Reproducible & easily versioned environment
* Single-source dependency easier to get security to sign off on
* Plotting still better than anything else
Big disadvantages of matlab:
* Cost
* Lock-in
* Bad namespaces
* Bad typing
* 1-indexing
* Small package ecosystem
* Low interoperability & support in 3rd party toolchains
Real advantages of matlab:
* Simulink
* Autocoding straight to embedded
* Reproducible & easily versioned environment
* Single-source dependency easier to get security to sign off on
* Plotting still better than anything else
Big disadvantages of matlab:
* Cost
* Lock-in
* Bad namespaces
* Bad typing
* 1-indexing
* Small package ecosystem
* Low interoperability & support in 3rd party toolchains