Comparing to Python is not exactly fair. I don't think there are any languages that have a worse deployment experience.
How does it compare to Go or Rust?
They want obfuscation. Rust libraries necessarily include the AST for public generic functions. So it may not be suitable.
I think that's a totally different topic, but regardless it's the same with C++ and I don't see that being a big issue to C++ library vendors.
Rust doesn't have a stable ABI so it's not like you could realistically distribute a closed source "native" Rust library anyway.
My C# pipelines and C# apps are far easier to package and deploy than my Python apps for example. And, as you said, the pipeline is normally a one time cost.