

Correct. Atomic distros don’t apply the update, unless it is ready to be applied successfully all together, usually with an option to restore the previous state, without the need of something like btrfs snapshots.
With Nix(-OS) as an example - your bootloader entry is just a reference a giant list of what you need to get out of the Nix store, to achieve the config you want. Many of those can coexist in the same system as a result, including different versions of the same package
This setup won’t really teach you anything different in relation to containers though.
Something about channeling like 50 lightning strikes from a single skill just feels right