Exactly my point.
Today I can run docker rootless and in that case can leverage compose in the same manner. Is it the default? No, you've got me there.
SystemD runs as root. It's just ironic given all the hand waving over the years. And Docker, and all it's tooling, are so ubiquitous and well thought out that Podman and friends are literally a reimplementation which is the selling point.
I've used Podman. It's fine. But the arguments of the past aren't as sharp as they originally were. I believe Docker improved because of Podman, so there's that. But to discount the reality of the doublespeak by paid for representatives from RedHat/IBM is, again, ironic.
