The distros should be shipping two versions of python (if they need), walling their required old version off somewhere but actively and explicitly including a newer one higher up in the $PATH so that people don’t have to mess with the “system”. The problem is the combination of “system”, “third-party tools”, and “users” trying to use the same python with completely different upgrade timelines. If all of these distros included by default a recent-ish version, and their package managers made updating that one a snap, then third-party tools could stop trying to use system python for anything at all, and users could forget that the “system” python existed.
Unfortunately, since the problematic old python versions are on existing old distro versions, it’s not clear that there’s any easy way to fix this problem.
Unfortunately, since the problematic old python versions are on existing old distro versions, it’s not clear that there’s any easy way to fix this problem.