That's really good case about upstream packaging. Do we really want yet another android story? I trust maintainer which is volunteering it's time to ensure the package complies with distributions guidelines.
With universal packages we would have universal config file paths. So for example: apache2 on debian based systems will store documents on /var/www while something like arch will store them at /srv/httpd. Similar thing happens with a `sites-available` accross distros. Different distributions are doing things differently, which users are expecting and putting upstream developers in charge of that will make a huge mess, because it's more convenient for them to store configuration at a specific location accross every distribution. Yes that makes a pain to write deployment scripts accross difrerent distros, but IMO consistensy is a key to a good distribution.
Another good key point here would be testing, different distributions aim for different things, while debian aims for maximum stability and uses quite dated packages that are known to work. Where there are distributions which are always on the bleeding edge. Will upstream backport security patches for old packages? I really doubt they would like to maintain packages for years to come.
I don't say it would be all bad, there certainly would be great developers which would benefit from universal packaging, but that will not always be the case.
With universal packages we would have universal config file paths. So for example: apache2 on debian based systems will store documents on /var/www while something like arch will store them at /srv/httpd. Similar thing happens with a `sites-available` accross distros. Different distributions are doing things differently, which users are expecting and putting upstream developers in charge of that will make a huge mess, because it's more convenient for them to store configuration at a specific location accross every distribution. Yes that makes a pain to write deployment scripts accross difrerent distros, but IMO consistensy is a key to a good distribution.
Another good key point here would be testing, different distributions aim for different things, while debian aims for maximum stability and uses quite dated packages that are known to work. Where there are distributions which are always on the bleeding edge. Will upstream backport security patches for old packages? I really doubt they would like to maintain packages for years to come.
I don't say it would be all bad, there certainly would be great developers which would benefit from universal packaging, but that will not always be the case.