Thanks for the detailed answer. I think I have a clearer picture of the problems it’s trying to solve and the solutions it’s delivering.

It also now seems connected to immutable distros I’ve heard about recently. So I guess the idea there is that the OS is just a tiny core set of libraries that never have to change, then the applications have their dependencies bundled, instead of requiring them as system dependencies.

I’m not convinced it’s something I want as a user, but more importantly not something I need.

From a development perspective, it seems downright seductive, allowing almost total freedom of opinion.