I wonder if you have a different definition of "short scripts" than many others. It seems to me that a genuinely short script wouldn't require big refactors, or types---that would be overkill for a short script.
Personally, I use Python as a Bash replacement a lot, that's what I think of when I hear "short scripts." Sort of what people used to use Perl for. Pushing strings around, complicated repetitive filesystem manipulations. (And data sciencey stuff of course.)
I agree with you. Automate some task? Scrape some web content? Glue some programs together by translating the output of one to fit the input of the other?
Python it is! If it doesn't already have something in the standard library for your task, it's definitely in the PyPI. This reduces your work to importing a library and writing 5-20 lines of code.
I use "short scripts" to mean: I have an idea I want to play around with, usually involving data analysis or some data structure or algorithm sketch, and I'd like to devote the next 2-3 hours to writing a 100-200 line program that evolves with me as I refine what exactly it is that I would like to be examining.
Personally, I use Python as a Bash replacement a lot, that's what I think of when I hear "short scripts." Sort of what people used to use Perl for. Pushing strings around, complicated repetitive filesystem manipulations. (And data sciencey stuff of course.)