[debiandev]

Debian Developer here.

Reminder: the Debian Packaging Guidelines are meant for official Debian packages.

Making a package with dpkg-deb -b <dir> <packagename> is very easy and gives all the features of APT (dependency tracking, config management, atomic deployment).

[regularfry]

Yep. If you're packaging for Debian, the packaging guidelines make sense. If you're packaging something nobody outside your org is ever going to see, you can be a lot more flexible.

[secondcoming]

Yes, dpkg-deb is a recent discovery. Out of interest, what am I losing by doing it this way rather than if I followed the official guidelines?