The problem is snaps and loopbacks/squashfs. Despite my unease about the ecosystem cli tools like youtube-dl which need constant updating are actually the best

The problem is snaps and loopbacks/squashfs. Despite my unease about the ecosystem cli tools like youtube-dl which need constant updating are actually the best-usecase possible for snap package management, installing it with snap just works everytime. Try it any other way and you'll be constantly hitting errors. Things like a gui or basically anything X11 related is somewhat cringeworthy and makes a mockery of all the sandboxing claims. If it's an X11 app it's not secure by default and having a unstoppable update system for that is more of a risk than a benefit in my opinion.