Why do many experienced developers recommend preferring composition over inheritance?

Composition is preferable to inheritance for several reasons:

• Flexibility: composition allows dynamically changing an object's behavior by substituting different components.
• Avoiding tight coupling: inheritance creates a strong link between classes, which complicates maintenance and extension.
• Avoiding hierarchy issues: deep and complex inheritance hierarchies are hard to understand and maintain.
• Explicit separation of responsibilities: composition enables building objects from independent parts, each responsible for its own task.

Example of composition in Python:

class Engine:
    def start(self):
        print("Engine started")

class Car:
    def __init__(self, engine):
        self.engine = engine
    def start(self):
        self.engine.start()

engine = Engine()
car = Car(engine)
car.start()  # Engine started

Here, Car uses Engine through composition, not inheritance.