>
>
> >I think it doesn't
> > make a lot of sense to default tab-width to 4.
>

Sorry, s/4/8/ here.

>
>
> python.el defaults tab-width to 8, but sets indent-tabs-mode to nil,
>

When you do rigid indentation, say C-x Tab and then S-Right, you get
8-spaces tab steps with that configuration.