> “if you don't want to use pip”
Why wouldn’t you want to use pip?
Why wouldn’t you want to use pip?
In my particular case the "application" was in fact interactive bootstrap/install scripts for a large, proprietary blob which wouldn't have been suitable for publishing on PyPI, anyway. Setting up a separate, possibly authenticated PyPI instance, and then training end users how to use it, vs just shipping everything together in a single package? Total non-starter.
Definitely a complicating factor was that all of this was meant to be usable by non-nerds and in an environment with limited or possibly no internet access. It wouldn't have been acceptable to download your installer package at the hotel, and then get to site and invoke it only to discover that you were on the hook for a few GBs of transfer from docker.io.