Certainly depends a lot on what the term "VM" actually means in the context. If it's something as specialized as the JVM, or a native virtualization with an extremely trimmed down guest, then at some point you'll find yourself in need of something more heterogenous, e.g. running a tool on the side that does not fit the VM. Then you're back at square one, only this time with containers (or back in some irreproducible ad-hoc setup). Going with containers from the start, containers that may or may not contain a VM, and that may or may not actually do more than what a VM could supply, that's much less hassle than changing horses at a later point.
