I had the exact same thought back in the day. The security isolation is obviously the main selling point, but the way Qubes handles seamless GUI integration across completely separate domains is technically beautiful.

With modern CPUs having much better hardware virtualization support than a decade ago, building a developer-focused OS that leverages that same compartmentalization (e.g., isolating different client environments or dependency hells without dealing with Docker's quirks) feels a lot more viable now.