The advantages of real package management are not obvious to someone who hasn't used it, I know from experience... personally I will never administer a computer without it again.

Let's see what advantages I can think of:

1. Currently there is no way to keep your software updated -- this is important because we're often talking about internet-facing apps that might get security updates.

2. Currently you need to download some unknown binary from an unknown website. Using a repository doesn't suddenly make this more secure, but it does give the repository maintainers the possibility to 'control' what is offered to users (e.g. they can refuse to accept a package that doesn't uninstall cleanly).

3. When the amount of software increases, it gets more difficult to remember and find all the sites and installation procedures, a repository system scales a lot better (info is in the same place in the same format).

4. automation becomes a possibility. If you have 15 packages you like, but must flash the device (maybe because of OS upgrade), the system could automatically install all 15 afterwards -- of course checking that they all work and are available on the new OS.

5. Less space is used. With the current installer if software A and software B both need library X, they'll both have to include a copy in their installer. With the new system X is installed only once and both A and B use the same version.