Glad to see this getting discussion. I hate virtualenvs for several of the reasons mentioned in the article - extra state to keep track of, and potentially installing packages to the wrong location if I failed to keep track of it.
I always just force my user packages to work. I usually only use numpy/scipy/matplotlib and occasionally a few others so its not that hard, but some sort of npm like experience would be welcome. I know that many are struggling with these environments.
I think the article describes it pretty well, it actually highlighted a few features of npm I wasn't familiar with. But to speak to my own experience, it's convenient that npm installs all the packages you need into a project-local node_modules folder. This eliminates the need for venv.
Mostly I just want to see venv eliminated. I really don't like the workflow it requires.
I always just force my user packages to work. I usually only use numpy/scipy/matplotlib and occasionally a few others so its not that hard, but some sort of npm like experience would be welcome. I know that many are struggling with these environments.