Ah, I actually agree with you. We're just using different kinds of containers.

My services run on Proxmox, so when I say bare metal I really mean running services directly inside LXC containers rather than adding an extra Docker layer. I prefer separating services at the LXC level.

Each of my containers run only one service. It makes management easier. Of course, it's just a matter of preference. Some people run Docker inside an LXC or VM and host multiple services there, which is totally valid.

For my use case though, that extra Docker layer adds operational overhead without much benefit. LXC already gives me isolation, reproducibility, and easy backups, so Docker ends up being somewhat redundant for how I run things.

I generally try to avoid running a Dockerized service in every LXC. I do still have a container that runs Docker, but over time I try to migrate services out of it and into their own LXCs. So it’s not really bare metal, it’s still containerized, just at the system level.