If you use pip without protection, it will gladly and malevolently mess up your system. Every Python user learns quickly about the virtual environment work around. Various distributions (e.g. through Homebrew on Os X, Arch Linux, Ubuntu Linux) ship pip without the ability to make system-wide installations (externally-managed-environment). Even on Windows, where there is no standardized package management system, doing a pip install will place a bunch of dlls in the system's PATH that could get in the way of any program on your system.

The anti-solution of ignoring the problem is what got us here.

> Does pip have to interface with the Windows or iOS package managers? No. Yet it's wildly successful.

Successful I agree. I have issues on any system I use it on because now I have the package installed by PIP and the package installed by my OS package manager - slightly different.