>I'm sure Ubuntu considers it progress when they can push more people to use their pet project and it's app store nobody can self-host and give less room to its competitor. But is it progress for the users, for whom access to software not available as Snap and not in repos became harder?
The progress being having a single standard -- then all the software will be available for that.
Mixing and matching 2-3 different package/distribution formats to get all of your software because some is available in one and not the other is not ideal, and doesn't lead to a consistent sytem.
If there's anything approaching consensus about the "single standard" then maybe, but to me it seems like a good chunk of the ecosystem right now wants Canonicals idea of that to fail, at least in its current form, and instead of attempting to fix the problems and trying to make the user experience more consistent across the different options they try to force it.
The progress being having a single standard -- then all the software will be available for that.
Mixing and matching 2-3 different package/distribution formats to get all of your software because some is available in one and not the other is not ideal, and doesn't lead to a consistent sytem.