I think compilation of the result has been a major roadblock for this type of projects for some time. On the side of Rhino plug-ins, there is now the Rhino.Python plug-in compiler, which is encrypting .py files.
For GH2 we also plan to have a compiler for Grasshopper components that are written in Python. The goal of this is to compile Python to DLR-based CIL via IronPython.
I hope this helps,
Giulio
Giulio Piacentino
for Robert McNeel & Associates
giulio@mcneel.com