> "using Python is more portable than relying on a shell."

Not in environments I use. :)  There isn't an installed python interpreter that can be executed when deploying Python as an embedded interpreter such as anyone using pyoxidizer or similar.  Plus "using python" means adding a Python startup time delay to anything that triggered such an action.  That added latency isn't acceptable in some situations.

When I suggest a workaround for something as involving an intermediate shell script, read that to mean "the user needs an intermediate program to do this complicated work for them - how is up to them - we aren't going to provide it from the stdlib".  A shell script is merely one easy pretty-fast solution - in environments where that is possible.

TL;DR - there's no one size fits all solution here.  But third party libraries could indeed implement any/all of these options including abstracting how and what gets used when if someone wanted to do that.