Yeah gdb is amazing tool. The micropython is few extra steps as you have to build the firmware for your target, and occasionally switch between proper FW and micropython FW. It still makes sense as you can do many things impossible in gdb.
You can define structs, loops and functions on the fly and execute them. You can build a complete driver in interactive session, first by poking around in registers and seeing that the HW reacts per spec, and then assembling correct operations into initialization function and updating function. All of this is throwaway code but it can save large amount of time.
Maybe non-critical systems could be left with the micropython implementation, but so far I haven't learned how to profile and optimize it to satisfaction.
You can define structs, loops and functions on the fly and execute them. You can build a complete driver in interactive session, first by poking around in registers and seeing that the HW reacts per spec, and then assembling correct operations into initialization function and updating function. All of this is throwaway code but it can save large amount of time.
Maybe non-critical systems could be left with the micropython implementation, but so far I haven't learned how to profile and optimize it to satisfaction.