It sounds like you are talking about snap or flatpak. These are extremely unpopular on HN.
idk.
HN just mainly complains about some implementation details.
Like flathub applications often not being sandboxed, yet.
Or Canonical forcing certain update strategies and similar on snap users.
(Only slightly joking).
They have their issues, that's for sure (e.g. flatpack's broken for a long time sandboxing model, snap doing weird things with mounts, the backend being closed source) but honestly they solve so many issues with desktop/client facing software they're a no brainer.
Containerization in general is aatter of taste.