I'm not denying any of this and agree with your analysis about MATLABs use. I'm just saying that it's still used a lot more than people on Hacker News like to think.
The University I work at still teaches MATLAB to new engineering students still.
Oh I understand, I was more responding to your original statement "None of them use Python either. A lot just use MATLAB" which would be an unusual state of affairs in this day and age, though I have no doubt it is true in your specific situation. It's just that your experience seems circumscribed and uncommon in academia today (well insofar as I can tell -- I don't know the culture at every university).
The University I work at still teaches MATLAB to new engineering students still.