Layers are integral in Docker, layers were pushed as enabling reuse, composibility, 'immutability', every 'run' statement is a layer. They are not an implementation detail. Managing all these layers adds complexity and impact users from choosing storage drivers, to using layers to building images, and if you are going to use layers you need to be a privileged user to mount all these layers. [1]

Here is an example. I build an Nginx container with no layers from a base alpine image. Users can download and run it in a layer so the original Nginx container remains untouched or run a copy of it. If there is a security alert or update I rerun the build. No layers used. You build the same Nginx container will multiple layers, and have all the overhead of tracking and managing these layers. And users then download the Nginx container made up of all these layers and run it. If there is a security update in any lower layers it needs to rebuild. You have used a workflow and designed an entire system based on stacking layers to compose and build your image. That is a lot of overhead and complexity in basic image management. What is the benefit?

[1] https://kinvolk.io/blog/2018/04/towards-unprivileged-contain...