> Historically Windows scripts, installers, applications, etc could liberally spray the filesystem and registry with their content.
They could do this, but suggested standards have always existed, e.g. system-wide files in a sub-directory of $PROGRAM_FILES, user-specific data in $APPLICATION_DATA and the like. Then, in principle, a general uninstalling procedure can figure out what it needs to delete. It's not clear what all the extra complexity in these newer standards is adding.
It was left up to application developer to implement, and each software house could fuck it up.
Just think about computer games, I have one that saves savegame files in app data, one that saves it to my documents, and an older one that saves them into program files.
Now the 'container' is managed by the os, and the OS can actually tell me how much space an app is taking, and update/delete it with all the residual files
Suggested standards have existed but they are routinely flouted in practice. These packaging systems make it much easier for developers to do the right thing and harder to do the wrong thing. And it gives the user confidence that they can easily remove an application in its entirety.
They could do this, but suggested standards have always existed, e.g. system-wide files in a sub-directory of $PROGRAM_FILES, user-specific data in $APPLICATION_DATA and the like. Then, in principle, a general uninstalling procedure can figure out what it needs to delete. It's not clear what all the extra complexity in these newer standards is adding.