I have, my impression when doing an applied math degree more than 10 years ago was that python was by far more prevalent than R. I know through my wife that python is much more prevalent in bio-informatics and bioengineering too.

Doesnt really change my argument though, R is also a slow but simple language that is popular among academics but not professional software engineers. My whole point is that Swift is never going to be popular with academics because the syntax isn't simple enough.