I can articulate why I'm unhappy with the current set-up:
1. Requiring Tcl is fragile. Un-gumming installation on machines at Los Alamos before my first Python course cost me several hours, and I had to do it again two months' later. I've run into similar problems with multiple Tcl installations on Windows machines (personal use).
For Windows, this problem has gone away in 1.6 and 2.0 -- we distribute and install our own Tcl/Tk binaries, in a place that doesn't affect or require existing Tcl/Tk installations. Maybe we can do the same for Unix binary distributions? I believe Jeremy has already had to create a separate RPM for _tkinter because there are too many different versions of Tcl/Tk out there -- it shouldn't be hard to install our own altogether.
2. (Lack of) native look and feel. This is a complete show-stopper for many of the outfits I've dealt with (and not just with Python).
Really? Are you sure that's not just general resistence against new things? To me, and I suspect may others, the app I use most often on Windows is Netscape -- talk about lack of native look-and-feel! It's never bothered me all that much. Or are you saying that IDLE isn't designed as a typical Microsoft app? That's quite a separate issue from the widget look-and-feel! --Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)