Scoped down to the problems that nix solves, I get the same vibes using nix as I did in the early days of docker. It solves painful problems, with a community and suite of tools large enough to be useful, and people who have paid the initial mental investment are happily using nix in lots of ways today.

But when you widen that scope to incorporate the rest of nix's warts, I'm not sure whether the project carries the requisite momentum to become a ubiquitous tool. I hope it does! The project has lofty goals and it really deserves a layer of porcelain to soften its usability and bring its benefits to more developers, because the actual, pragmatic results it delivers border on magic sometimes, and I wish more people were able to experience it. I don't blame people for avoiding that ramp-up time investement. I tried, gave up for many years, and only in the past six months or so devoted enough time to use it proficiently without training wheels. Not everyone has that luxury, nor should we in the nix community expect people to pay down enormous initial learning debt.

I began freelance consulting at the start of the year, and interesingly, more than one of my engagements turned into "let's solve this with nix", which is both surprising and encouraging. If the nix community can trim down the harsh thorns that encircle the language and tools (and provide rock solid learning materials), there's an actual chance that nix could really bloom in the near future.