Everything has positive and negative consequences. These are just tools, they provide choice.

There is a need to package closed source software, to provide dependencies. Some people use outdated distributions, that's root cause. If distribution is switching I'd better search like minded and help with maintaining (or it would be systemd scenario).

At least there is application. Everyone is free to make native. There is Void (Linux), runit [1], at least on Arch Linux there is big choice [2]. Fork Gnome, KDE 3 forked as Trinity Desktop Environment [3]. Boot to xmonad — 100MB RAM, Chromium — several GB RAM.

It is easy to imagine arguments against — Steam builds distribution platform on top of Linux, no packages there, Wayland vs X11, distributions spread resources, maintainers breaks software. I am not Steam user, I am not Ubuntu user, but I benefit from wider community.

[1] https://voidlinux.org/

[2] https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/init

[3] http://www.trinitydesktop.org/

> That's part of what's getting worse: Fracturing/deterioration of the use of distribution package management, instead of improving and expanding it.

Indeed, the popularity of docker, flatpak and hobby/fad distributions and language-specific package managers is leading to many security nightmares and harming traditional distributions.

There are reasons for painstakingly vet and package software:

- security

- stability AKA you don't want to force feature upgrades with new bugs on servers and workstations

- legal compliance: people are unaware of the amount of license issues in docker hub, flatpaks and most distributions