I feel like the Dockerfile format was very tight and simple to use, and the tools somewhat usable, but over time they keep bolting things onto it by committee. It is better than git, but that's pretty faint praise.

When I'm staring at the worst of it (unsticking myself or worse, trying to explain why it's like this to a coworker who is stuck), I keep thinking that there's a standard for making these containers, won't someone get around to rewriting the user-facing bits with the modern requirements designed in from the start?

But it's good enough, so we are probably stuck with it until someone comes up with a better idea to base application compartmentalization upon. Like an OS that actually does what I was promised 25 years ago and am still waiting for.