Yeah, container image is like a binary package that specifies whole operating
system as its dependency, and as such it's not really "you have consistency on
all servers", as you have a dozen of different versions of different
distributions, it's just you don't see them while deploying stuff.
And yes, with a binary packages you don't get to use all the orchestration
around Docker et al., just as you don't get with containers to use all the
orchestration and configuration management built around packages. It gets
pretty much the same, with the difference of introducing dozen layers of
abstraction.
If you are willing to follow all the rules that a well defined container needs to fulfill all the promises, you might as well follow the rules your sysadmins had defined, and let them use the tools they had been using for ages.
And yes, with a binary packages you don't get to use all the orchestration around Docker et al., just as you don't get with containers to use all the orchestration and configuration management built around packages. It gets pretty much the same, with the difference of introducing dozen layers of abstraction.