We will have to disagree on that. This is all problem spectific, but I have found C code integrated via ctypes, cffi, or by a C extension is over 100x Python alone. Interestingly Python, Numba, and Numpy together which is a more pythonic solution can get to those speeds too.

All of the other approaches I have tried are much slower: Nuitka, Cython, Numpy alone, PyPy, etc.

To get best speeds one has to compile for your specific architecture and enable things like vectorization, auto parallel, and fast math. Most default builds including libraries do not do that.