The problem is that packages aren't as useful as they should be; I actually prefer solutions that fall outside of package managers, because I am forced to rebui

The problem is that packages aren't as useful as they should be; I actually prefer solutions that fall outside of package managers, because I am forced to rebuild from source (without the package manager) more often than I'd like. For instance, I usually need to ignore packages whenever I can't be root, or when I need more than one version of something at a time. While many packages "can" handle these things, it is often a matter of improperly maintained packages (e.g. RPMs might be relocatable, but not all of them are; it is too flaky to rely on this ability).