[pttrsmrt]

This so much. The only time i see it making sense to release a full-blown distro is for marketing reasons or making a more unified aesthetic experience like for example Elementary (which certainly has its own issues, but that is another story) or for a very specific purpose like Kali or Tails. There are, however, a jungle of different software and solutions out there so sometimes I appreaciate a "curated" list of de facto software to test. Having to install a whole distro for that, virtually or otherwise, might be the definition of overkill.

As always the problem is in the possibilities: The different systems (both distros and user installs) are so differently configured, that a script most certainly will mess it all up.

The best solution I can see (at least for my use) is to expand the dotfile-approach to encompass applications and more advanced settings too. But I guess it has certain security a related issues?

[hd4]

Even a distro-specific script would do the job in many cases.

Elementary is a good example of where some kind of advanced script/package setup could possibly replicate what the developers have done.

What you mention regarding extending the idea of dotfiles to encompass applications/settings is exactly what I'm hoping will start happening rather than this saturation of distros that don't necessarily bring a lot to the table. As for security issues, yes that's always going to be a concern when you add new packages, but no reason why there couldn't be some improved process in place to let users know when they are straying off the path.