FWIW I actually tend to run podman compose inside a podman container. This is so I can containerize the integration tests which orchestrate the app. It's a useful pattern - one I think should be a lot more widely used for several reasons. The systemd service wouldn't work in this context.

I could maybe use some entrypoint magic to run a server when the container starts just so I can use docker compose but still...eww.

Running a podman systemd service might suffice if it was something that could be installed with a snap of two fingers on every environment but if it means fscking around with service files it's definitely not something I'd want to add to a "set up a development environment" README.