Let me open with an analogy....
I'm currently playing through Skyrim (yet again).
I've got different outfits for different things and I deliberately DON'T upgrade them as much as I could.
For example, I've got an assassin's outfit which is only enchanted with muffle, sneak, one-handed and backstab and the armor hasn't been upgraded at all.
Equally, I've got a thief's outfit which is enchanted with muffle, sneak, lockpicking and pickpocket and, again, the armor isn't upgraded.
I've also got a set of battle armor which is enchanted with stamina buffs, one-handed and archery and which IS upgraded.
Point is, if I wanted to I could create outfits and then upgrade them so they've all got more than 1,000 armor points (when the average of a standard outfit is about 60) and then enchant various components so I move like a ninja, fight like Conan, cast spells like Gandalf and am a better thief than Catwoman.
But I don't.
Cos I want to deliberately limit myself.
I don't want to be able to slaughter ancient dragons with a single swing of a (crazy-powerful) sword when I'm in the middle of breaking into somebody's house.
I don't want to be able to creep around silently when I'm wearing a full set of Daedric armor in the middle of a big battle.
All of which, kinda brings us to the Python in ED.
I like restricting myself to pokey cargo missions and small passenger missions in my Keelback, all the time knowing that running away is going to be my best defence.
I like heading out in my Asp and knowing that if I stumble across an interesting passenger mission I'll have to ignore it.
No matter what you're doing, in ED, you will usually find yourself thinking "I could be doing this better in a Python"
I think that actually creates a bit of a problem for the Python because all us ship-junkies deliberately ignore it just for the sake of diversity, even though we know we'd be better off in a Python.
If Faulcon DeLacey ever produced an advertising campaign for the Python, that'd probably be the slogan: "You're better off in a Python".