I know I am late to the party.
Anyways...
Developer-Dude Java
As mentioned, using Java will be an uphill fight which is generally not worth fighting anymore.
Developer-Dude unless Python can run on Android
It can, but not in the way you'd expect.
Developer-Dude I'd prefer not to use Android Studio.
Not possible in practice, but thankfully it's a proper IDE based on Jetbrains' IntelliJ engine, which is objectively the best (fight me, I dare ya!).
Developer-Dude If you've done Android app development and put an app on GitHub before, I'd love advise.
This may seem obvious, but is overlooked by first-timers: Always sign your app with your own signing keys when releasing it!
This is not applicable to only Android, but rather applies to all in the software development world: Remember that software development isn't about just writing code; it is about collaborating, organising and project management as well.
Also, get used to Gradle -- which is the standard task- and dependency manager for Android projects; you will have to use it and configure it to succeed.
Do note that while I have made Android apps, I am still not a very experienced Android developer.
Though, I do have a few years worth of experience wrangling with Python, TypeScript/JavaScript, and some C, along with shell-scripting, general UNIX knowledge and project management as well.