This Maya script takes a source object and creates duplicates or instances, and for each target, move the duplicated/instanced source to match position, orientation and scale.

20190608_dupObjs_v001_01.py

from pymel.core import *

'''
written by Patrick Woo (patrickwoo@yahoo.com)
This Maya script takes a source object and creates duplicates or instances, and for each target, 
move the duplicated/instanced source to match position, orientation and scale.
'''

def dupObjs(inList, dupMode):
    '''
    inList - <list> a list of transforms. last item is the source, and all other items are targets that the source will get duplicated to
    dupMode - <str> can be 'duplicate' or 'instance'to create duplicates or instances respectively
    '''
    errStrInsufficnetInput = '\nselect all targets transforms, then source object transform last, then run the script\n'
    if len(inList) < 2:
        print(errStrInsufficnetInput)
        return

    # selTargetList - <list> a list of transform nodes
    # selSource - <transform node> the source transform to duplicate to each target node
    selSource, selTargetList = ([PyNode(x) for x in ls(inList[-1], type='transform')], 
                                [PyNode(x) for x in ls(inList[:-1], type='transform')])
    if selSource and selTargetList:
        print('good to go')
    else:
        print(errStrInsufficnetInput)
        return
    
    newObjsList = []
    newGrp = group(empty=True, name='dupObjs_grp')
    for tgtObj in selTargetList:
        print('tgtObj is {}'.format(tgtObj))
        if 'dup' in dupMode.lower():
            newObj = duplicate(selSource)[0] # duplicateion returns a list
        else:
            newObj = instance(selSource)[0] # instancing returns a list
        parent(newObj, newGrp)
        newObj.rename(tgtObj.shortName())
        newObjsList.append(newObj)
    
        pc = parentConstraint(tgtObj, newObj, maintainOffset=False) 
        delete(pc)
        sc = scaleConstraint(tgtObj, newObj, maintainOffset=False)
        delete(sc)

    # print ('newObjsList is {}'.format(newObjsList))
    print('\nDuplication operation completed.\n')
    return


dupObjs(ls(sl=True), 'instance')

Man I love you. I've been trying to find it for so long.

I am glad it's able to help you, Abendstern! :)