As I mentioned in another comment, docker containers are fine until you have even a slightly non-standard setup or use case, like the not-so-uncommon setup of having the machine connected to a VPN, in which case docker will proceed to not work at all.
What makes running these things easy isn't the container but that the software is packaged at all and would have the same effect if it were done through a conventional package manager. So of course docker seems like an upgrade when the only other thing they're offering is a loose distribution of files you have to manually copy in and configure.