We clone a running VM in 2 seconds (2022)

The VM vs container debate is fascinating. They are separate yet slowly merging concepts that are becoming more blurred as technology becomes cheaper and faster. If the real bottleneck to scale is adaptable code, then it is foolish to dismiss the VM as outdated tech when it can be completely rehomed in 2 seconds. That megabyte of python code managing your containers would still be busy checking it's dependencies in that same timeframe.

IMHO the real advancement was the implicit snapshot Docker takes after every line in a Dockerfile.

Virtual Machine builder scripts like Packer could do this… but don’t.

It’s a choice, not an inherent technology limitation.