I think the gap you have is in understanding that Podman Compose was meant to line up with the limitations of docker’s compose, but technically is more capable.

Quadlet files let you do more complex workflows like deploying multiple copies of a service in your deployment that regular compose doesn’t, while not running full kube.

The use I have is that I have something deployed in compose right now that I’d like to scale up on the box since i have the capacity for it, but dont want to deal with a full kube setup or the politic

Personally I’ve converted most of my single node k3s to using quadlet files instead as its less fragile. I absolutely deploy single containers in the quadlet. They show up in journalctl and the ergonomics are great.

Sometimes I flip that cheese over and let it crisp up after steaming it

Ah good to know, shame it’s been left by the wayside a bit. Was super useful in the early days

Seems similar to the work done by https://sub.rehab