> Presumably you think "most noobs" are data scientists, which just isn't the case in my experience

It is the case in my personal experience though. I don't think I'm disconnected from what 'noobs' are as I've taught a lot of them through my line of work.

Assume you're a noob and are exploring Python package universe, fire a new private tab and google 'most popular python packages'; in my case the first 3 links are:

- https://www.activestate.com/blog/top-10-must-have-python-pac...

- https://www.ubuntupit.com/best-python-libraries-and- packages-for-beginners/

- https://www.edureka.co/blog/python-libraries/

All of which list numpy, pandas and the rest e.g. tensorflow and friends.