You probably mean "you need docker to self host it". The only way to guarantee consistent behavior of software across different devices is if they all share the same base environment. If this can be achieved by any other means great. It is one of the solutions to "it works on my computer problem". Most home server solutions (start9,umbrel etc) are built around this. Doesn't matter if it is well designed if it can only run on the Creator's system.

Honestly I think that's starting to become most projects now. The only reason node project's are usually supported outside of containers is because it's all monoglot. npm run x. That and fucking environment variables for configuration. It really bothers me.

From my Simple-Bookmark app readme "Simple-bookmark was built bare-metal as the primary target, this is because I believe users should have the support to deploy open source apps easily outside of a container. So while a container deployment is an option, the container is actually built from the Linux-x64 package during CI build time."