The best equivalent I can give is this is roughly like opening up a MSI file, and replacing its guts. It works but you're asking for a really fragile system in return.

What is the problem with distributing a tarball if you're sending binaries?

If you're making debs, you still need to make a Debian repo and sign it, and then you still have the problem your dependencies are fucked up or won't easily work across versions.

What are you trying to solve that a tarball or rsync can't?