I did my master and PhD around the time numpy/scipy got competitive for a lot of analysis (for me a complete replacement) but the Python binding for root weren't there or in beta. Root-the-data+format remained however the main output of Geant4, so I set up a tiny Python wrapper around a root script that would dump any .root contents and load it up in a numpy file.

My plots looked a lot nicer ;)

You don’t have to. I worked on data analysis (mostly cleaning and correction) for CMS (one of the two main experiments at LHC) for a while and didn’t have to touch it. Disclaimer: I was a high energy theorist, but did the aforementioned experimental work early in my PhD for funding.

I mean, most of the researchers I know at least use PyRoot (or the Julia equivalent) as much as possible, rather than actually interacting with Root itself. Which probably saves their sanity...

These days you can mostly avoid it. The Python HEP ecosystem is now pretty advanced so you can even read ROOT files without needing root itself. See:

https://scikit-hep.org/