I've been a long time Mac user and I think that software setup and updates has always been a bit clunky. Apple tries to make it easy with Software Update. You can always Homebrew to get missing pieces.
This is very true, and I too happily go to Linux land for servers. But for the typical target market of Apple devices (this is debatable), most people are happier with the download / open DMG / drag to applications scenario instead of typing, no?
yes, I agree that most people are happy with the DMG process.
I wonder if I could port yum to OS X. I'd have to look into how they structure the repo and how I would host it. What about just analyzing for what updates the system needs and pulling them from their respective websites, etc.
For me, I use CentOS for servers and I really wish that OS X had 'yum' (https://www.centos.org/docs/5/html/yum/)
It feels very easy for me to install, update, remove, etc