Fortran cannot be placed with C in the same category of low programming productivity.

Apparently we could do research work before Python was invented.

Why not?

1. data cleaning and other tasks for which Python excels, 2. C and Fortran don't come close to the developer speed of Python. Ideas don't come from using languages like C, but are rather enabled by implementing, prototyping, and iterating quickly and with little resistance from the language, using existing libraries, etc. Python is simply much better in these regards.