As you say, the inner monologue writing style of "I have this server and this thing and tried this and also I don't like this" may have led me astray as it didn't feel particularly focused, so it wasn't super clear what the complaint actually was.
Makes me wonder if inner-monologue type stuff is even useful to post to the internet (something ive wanted to post more off because it sucks less energy from writing motivation). Takes more effort to parse as a reader though...
It does feel like this sometimes.
In the past, we would then throw up our hands and say "Well boo on them for making their system hackable; sounds like their problem." But when you factor in the damage that can be done on the internet with things like botnets, it becomes everyone's problem. So sometimes people refrain from adding the escape hatches because they intend to work in an ecosystem of "You must be at least this technically savvy to play."
As you say, Docker would be great for that, as they say they use in your linked [1]. Did you read it?
I wouldn't read too much into these posts. These are days apart and read more like inner-monologue from setting up systems. My process for implementing someone would probably fare the same. You wade through the cruft, complain about some things, but it gets done in the end and it's always nice to solve the pain points later.