A container image is essentially a generalization of a binary, a folder holding the binary to run with its dependencies in a format that docker/podman can read,

A container image is essentially a generalization of a binary, a folder holding the binary to run with its dependencies in a format that docker/podman can read, unpack/uncompress, mount the folder and thereby its contained dependencies and binary, sets up unix accounting, and run the binary with its support dependencies. A compiler intermediate representation looks like a collection of data structures that can be used to generate runnable code either immediately as in an interpreter or saved for later use. I think you’ve compared very different ideas.