My main issue with urllib is it requires too much boilerplate and it ends up being harder to read the code at a later date in my experience. In general I prefer the standard library, but it’s a bit of a toss up in this case.
I use and have contributed to httpx but I'm scared of moths and had to block the image in my browser. Looks like they updated the image to be an even more detailed one :(
I’ve seen comments here on HN about people having similarly visceral reactions to the name CockroachDB and swear they will never use it for that reason alone. I always laughed at the absurdity but now I actually have some sympathy towards this type of reaction. If I opened the docs for an unsuspecting python package and was greeted with a detailed, half-screen photo of any arachnid I would probably throw whatever device I was using.
If you're looking for alternatives: https://www.python-httpx.org/