I agree with you. In a perfect world you would be able to drop in Python code and only have to add a #lang Python at the top of it. But realistically I think it would be closer to what you were saying about creating a pythonic language.

So maybe the practical solution is to have a language that looks like Python, Java, Ocaml, etc. I'm not sure how many #langs you would need to make the majority of programmers feel comfortable but I think even implementing a few would be a huge step up in accessibility than what we currently have.