a) poetry came out 6 years ago, though UV is the new kid on the block, it's easier to complain about that if you want to.

b) so, you are fighting with silly tools, but don't want newer, hopefully better tools? If you aren't fighting with silly tools, then more options is bad? I guess it's a bit confusing for beginners?

c) how are you fighting with the tools? This is a genuine question, I don't remember the last time that the tooling caused a problem and I've been working professionally with python for the last 5 years, on both small and larger projects, first I used conda, and in the last few years poetry. In poetry, it's two commands to create a new environment, and install everything. The only time I had a problem was with an internal library that had misconfigured dependencies.

d) here's the rundown on the dependency tools:

• Virtualenv is one of the oldest, from the python 2 times
• venv is just a subset of Virtualenv that was integrated into the standard library to have venvs available without external tools
• conda is not python specific, it also does R, Ruby, some DB stuff, etc... It tries for maximum compatibility with various systems. This is apparently very useful in bioinformatics which use very disparate tools.
• Pipenv is an attempt to implement ruby-like dependencies. I don't know much about it, it's not used much.
• flit is lightweight, for publishing packages only -poetry is what I am currently using. Simple toml based dependencies. Installs the packages wherever your want. Since it uses toml, it's compatible with other tools like dependi to check for updates. It's got a pretty good set of commands that you don't need to remember because init and update is what you need 90% of the time. Can also publish packages, and has separate dev/prod dependency groups.
• uv is the new one, written in rust (of course) and very fast. Also installs python versions, meaning you no longer need a separate tool/docker images to manage your python versions. No multiple dependency groups yet. Aiming to become the only tool you need to do anything in python. Still <v1.0 and not feature complete.
• pdm is more of a project manager, that allows for plug ins, scripts, and also no virtual envs if you want. Does a lot of things similar to poetry.

I mean, every one if these has a reason for existing, and is an improvement of the previous one (pdm started as a personal project, let people have their fun) . It's also a good few years between them, so it's not like they're spamming them.