[bloopernova]

There was already some bad feeling towards Docker, because they historically haven't fixed bugs or added requested features.

When Docker started asking for money for their desktop offering, it prompted people to start wondering just how valuable that offering was, and to compare it against competing applications. Also, a lot of developers I've spoken to just don't see the point of the Docker Desktop on Mac; they just want something that sits in the background and works without bugging them to update every other week.

Podman fits the use cases people have, it's open source and has more useful features than Docker Desktop currently has.

You're correct in that this sounds petty and silly, but there's history and context to this widespread move to ditch Docker.