aesthetics != ergonomics.
The use of the global function has exactly the same number of key presses to represent it. It may look ugly, but beyond that there is no down side. Ergonomics implies it makes the problem physically straining, it does not.
Ugly vs pretty isnt really important, not in a utilitarian sense. For me I weigh aesthetics higher than most and it will effect my desire (or rather lack thereof) to use python. But I recognize that is really just a silly quirk of mine and not a functional black mark against the language.