There are two good ways to approach binary app distribution:
1. Every app has its own installer, shell-based or otherwise, that handles everything including choosing the right binary, downloading it, managing versions, updates, config files, etc — all of it.
2. Every app is distributed as source code. It's user's responsibility to build it by the guide provided in README and keep it updated.

In between those two pillars, there is an uncanny valley of orphaned dependency graphs, broken post-install scripts, vendor-locked enforced app stores, eCoSyStEmS of apps, Adobe Creative Cloud, and all the other shit.

I dare say package managers are essentially both pillars at once.

Good ones, at least.

Adobe CC is literally the stable equilibrium option 1 inevitably settles into. The thing is, Adobe is not interested in how you would like their products to be distributed. Neither is Microsoft, Autodesk, Google, Intellij, or any of the other giants. The only point where a decision like this can be made is the OS distribution. And Windows' choice to leave it up to the vendor leads to Adobe CC. Package managers are far from done innovating, and I'll grant that it's very possible that they'll lead to something equally bad or worse, but the idyllic form of option 1 you describe only exists as an intermediary step towards an eCo|SyStEm full of Adobe CC.

@lorentz not interested huh? Then why VSCode is distributed in a dev-friendly manner?

@kiki my bad, companies of any size have specific projects where they care about this, they don't care about how you would like their flagship products to be distributed; MS Office, VS, Windows. Plus, VSCode is OSS bait so it does almost everything the same way an open-source project would.

@lorentz I would argue that they choose the distribution method that earns them the most money

@kiki ideally yes, realistically there are far too many positions of power involved for none of them to be on a delusional power trip and/or get misled by an overambitious designer with a "vision" on any given project.