it seems would naturally follow my next question here: are all these different language bindings just end up calling down the same calls to be in python underneath? which might make them all approximately the same speed maybe? 👀

it's Go underneath. The language of your choice compiles a definition, which gets passed to the Pulumi engine. The pulumi engine then call the provider binary for your chosen cloud provider

sounds great! & thanks for taking the time to explain. very much appreciated ty