Thanks for bringing up conda. We're definitely trying to paint this vision as well with `pixi` (https://pixi.sh) - which is a modern package manager, written in Rust, but using the Conda ecosystem under the hood.
It follows more of a project based approach, comes with lockfiles and a lightweight task system. But we're building it up for much bigger tasks as well (`pixi build` will be a bit like Bazel for cross-platform, cross-language software building tasks).
While I agree that conda has many short-comings, the fundamental packages are alright and there is a huge community keeping the fully open source (conda-forge) distribution running nicely.
It follows more of a project based approach, comes with lockfiles and a lightweight task system. But we're building it up for much bigger tasks as well (`pixi build` will be a bit like Bazel for cross-platform, cross-language software building tasks).
While I agree that conda has many short-comings, the fundamental packages are alright and there is a huge community keeping the fully open source (conda-forge) distribution running nicely.