[pvtmert]

Docker is useful and running in production. (well, it was the only, before containerd got separated entirely and it was usable directly from K8s about when it was 1.16)

What you say is absolutely correct. If Docker keeps creating compatibility layers for it's competitors, it makes everyone to switch to a competitor. In this case, the competitor is Kubernetes as it's running in production for much larger scale (enterprise workloads) compared to Podman et. al.

Hence, it's the job of Podman, Kubernetes, et. al. to write their compatibility layer to provide a value-add for their customers.