This is probably a net good: new ways for people to apply their Python knowledge are good, and new means and incentives for people to get into coding or make life easier are good, and Python is looking more future-proof than VBA at this point.
But the main selling point for this on the linked page and video is that the resulting code is shorter, and the code is only really shorter because the VBA code declares its variables. The video narrator even says that writing VBA is slower because you have to declare variables before use. I'm sure HN has had plenty of debates about declaring variables in the past, but personally I don't feel it slows me down much more than just thinking of a variable. Anyway, by default you don't have to declare variables in VBA, though it is good practice, especially for larger projects.
Also, that 40-line+ heap of VBA they show being changed into 14 lines of Python is rather unfair. They've written a function for finding the minimum in a range and then loop through a range when they could use worksheet functions (also accessible via VBA) for both. I make it around 12 lines of VBA if you do it that way. Or you could just use 3 worksheet functions and no macros at all.
OK, so these hypothetical beginners may not know the best way to do things in VBA - but they probably aren't going to use lambdas in Python as in the example, either. (Though I do like the possibilities of lambdas for various Excel tasks I've done in the past!)
But the main selling point for this on the linked page and video is that the resulting code is shorter, and the code is only really shorter because the VBA code declares its variables. The video narrator even says that writing VBA is slower because you have to declare variables before use. I'm sure HN has had plenty of debates about declaring variables in the past, but personally I don't feel it slows me down much more than just thinking of a variable. Anyway, by default you don't have to declare variables in VBA, though it is good practice, especially for larger projects.
Also, that 40-line+ heap of VBA they show being changed into 14 lines of Python is rather unfair. They've written a function for finding the minimum in a range and then loop through a range when they could use worksheet functions (also accessible via VBA) for both. I make it around 12 lines of VBA if you do it that way. Or you could just use 3 worksheet functions and no macros at all.
OK, so these hypothetical beginners may not know the best way to do things in VBA - but they probably aren't going to use lambdas in Python as in the example, either. (Though I do like the possibilities of lambdas for various Excel tasks I've done in the past!)