The Docker container is the least evil of the choices, but it does have very pointless intentional limitations. Like not bothering to handle the difference between bind and externally visible IP, or by making logs difficult to mount outside the container (to a tmpfs to spare the SD card).
It's not even about "having to support someone's setup" it's about basic best practices, practices other software implements relatively effortlessly.
Very much akin to Canonical's Snap ~/snap folder thousands of users are pleading them to move to a more normal location.
IMO those all seem like predictable results of using Docker. By duplicating a whole system, containerization creates a whole bunch of unwanted complexity. Developers then fail to address every single concern, and when they do address a concern they often end up creating a novel way of managing it rather than integrating it into the standard ways.
I agree Docker is the "least evil" option for HA which is why I gave it a shot. But I still got random breakage, even with their auto update auto everything solution. So I'd say it's more like they haven't done the work to make reliable software, and instead of letting others start to apply pressure so that work gets done, they've dug their heels in with the modern way of saying "works for me". Container images are basically the contemporary .EXE.
If I can be running Internet-facing postfix, powerdns, nginx, asterisk, etc through distro packages and have them stay updated, a home automation daemon that is exposed only to my own network can most certainly do the same. It's tedious work to get software packaged for wider audiences, but if Home Assistant wants to bill itself as one of the leading solutions for libre home automation, then it's work that needs to be done.
I wouldn't say this is a result of using Docker, it's just very visible in that case. It's also not about handling "every single concern", it's users getting punished for poor assumptions made by the developers.
Point being that this incompatibility is active instead of passive, so this effort could be or could have been spent better.
It's not even about "having to support someone's setup" it's about basic best practices, practices other software implements relatively effortlessly.
Very much akin to Canonical's Snap ~/snap folder thousands of users are pleading them to move to a more normal location.