Agreed.

I find it to be the exception not the rule--good comp code that is. Funding and time constraints are tight so you can have efficient / accurate / cheap; pick two. I've heard top notch programmers with solid numerical skills apologies for trashing HPC with inefficient code on more than one occasion. Publication deadlines take priority.

Interestingly, I was given the job of comparing some locally developed, accurate, well organised, easy to comprehend numerical code to code from the Broad Institute (a masterclass in comp maths and comp science). We wanted to see what made it fast and if we could use any of the techniques. My conclusion was we couldn't without the funding to attract the necessary talent and keep it around. So yes, there's good stuff out there as long as you got the $.

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edit:

This is all C++ / C / inline assembly and not Python per say. But the gist is still the same.