i don't think devs care if they use containers or VMs, as long as it's easy and they don't have to worry about which version of Python the host is running
This. It's why vagrant was popular before the container revolution.
The killer app of Docker isn't the container, it's the depth and uniformity of the UX surrounding the container system. When that is broken by something on the host (non x86 cpu was a major pain for a while before popular images were x-built) and emulation gets in the way and is not as easy, or just mildly different (windows behind corporate firewalls that assign ips used by the docker engine for example), the ease of use falls away for non-power users and it's all painful again.
Tech like Docker for windows and Rancher Desktop and lima has largely matured at this point, but somebody could make a new machine and then the process of gradual improvement starts all over again.
i don't think devs care if they use containers or VMs, as long as it's easy and they don't have to worry about which version of Python the host is running