Most languages can be installed with `apt get` or `brew install` nowadays. You may not get the latest versions but it's not like the old days where you have to download and compile from source and then update your PATHs anymore. I think Ubuntu comes preinstalled with python too.

While it's true that you can get started quickly with a <script>, I think you'll encounter inexplicable walls much quicker than other languages.

If you limit yourself to WebAPIs, you'll have a even smaller toolset than node. Not to mention most tutorials are assuming you are executing in node and not a browser e.g. file system access which was only recently available in Chrome and not implemented in Firefox. You also can't interact with most of the web due to CORS (such a common problem that it's pretty much a rite of passage for any JS developer now).