That is pretty obviously how it started, and for the very reasons you describe. But there have been some other benefits that have come out of going down this alternate path as well. In particular, the remote composability and local deployment is extremely useful for "cattle" edge system deployment. Installing a package reacts to what's currently on the system when installing. Even something as simple as the order you install your packages in can affect the result. Not having to run an entirely duplicate "golden" system to generate snapshots on and then push them to the cattle from is a pretty nifty benefit.