For me they're very similar. I actually did a talk last year for OWASP AppsecEU where I started with the curl|bash bit and pointed out where rubygems/npm etc aren't really a lot better in some ways
I'm curious to hear your opinion about a combination of digital signing with e.g. keybase/blockchain + reputation system, a sandboxed development environment (mitigates the "short con" risk) and a sandboxed production environment, with the minimum set of permissions required to operate (as well as auditing of course).
Call me pessimistic but I don't see developers taking on the extra friction given the status quo. Though a major data breach or two might change things, as I'm sure we'll find out sooner or later.