I'm happy to discuss this topic and to clarify it.

For me the 'package manager' aspects are more than the templating and having a zip file. For me it is more what apt etc. do

So using helm and its remote repositories, using the helm cli etc.

But we use kubeapps or ArgoCD to install the helm packages and download all helm charts before we deploy them (due to security requirements).

We leverage 100% IaC. Therefore we bootstrap ArgoCD and than install everything through ArgoCD. Only helm charts for our customers/collegues are installed through kubeapps.