Yes, that's the problem
I'm looking for a Free and Open Source alternative to vb.net, but so far it's been one obstacle after another. Laz/FP shows great promise, but the controls just aren't as friendly as I'm used to - yet. I hope no-one gets the hump from that, I realise it's early days. And I don't expect the Earth on a plate - I would help if I could. As soon as I find gaps in the wiki, I'm happy to fill them in... best I can do.
I'm also looking at Python as it's "the new shiny" that I feel I should get familiar with
(they do say it's easier to learn two languages at once!) but as you say, it's a scripting language at heart and the RAD stuff just isn't there. Maybe if you pay for closed software, but the Open avenue isn't currently leading anywhere where I'm thrilled to go. All the GUI toolkits (
http://wiki.python.org/moin/GuiProgramming) have drawbacks, either closed source, licencing issues, no devs all that bothered about Windows, or simply an unclear roadmap and still stuck in pre-v3 Python. And MS-SQL seems stuck in ODBC too, if I want Free.
The best of the bunch, for me, is looking like wxPython, with the XRC method of designing GUIs next on my list of things to play with. I'm told wxFormBuilder might be worth looking at. But Lazarus it aint!
I have been delighted to find just how close Lazarus is to being a full answer for desktop apps, the community around it seems helpful, and I'll keep plugging away. It's great to return to Pascal after all these years, it really does need some evangelism to bring more devs over to have another look, it's a perfectly acceptable compiled language for most of us.