It's a programming language, not a shell, of course. It has always been strict about syntax as well. I don't expect "&" or ">" to work the same in the shell as I do in Python—why would I expect "." to?

Close to none of the notation of Python works the same as a shell. Even quotes, which are superficially similar but have significant differences.

> abstract "package"

Packages are not abstract, they are simply a folder with .py files inside. Sounds concrete enough to me.

> changes depending on how you invoke Python

I'm not sure what this refers to? I know you can change PYTHONPATH. And the current folder portion changes with it.