steam-run seems to be able to run everything. It uses bubble wrap to keep the OS isolated and add /usr/bin stuff most exes want.

*it won't be in the future because it is no longer the grabbag for everything.

Also linking things to /usr/bin is done by the fhs which uses bubblewrap, not steam-run.

Even proper packaging is far easier compared to other package managers. Typical distros push users away from packaging their own software, so users end up relying on ad-hoc solutions instead. Nix instead makes packaging easier by having proper tools to abstract away the nitty gritty details.

For random binaries, autoPatchelfHook works miracles.

Every time I see a linux installation with a mess in /opt because it's faster than making a package, I get annoyed.

It wasn’t that bad creating some new derivations my first week with Nixos, I was so used to Arch where I had maybe a handful modified pkgbuilds over a decade.

For better or worse it was a positive experience, especially when you usually already have a pkgbuild to go off of.