I have to address some statements in this discussion:
OS/2's human package manager
Why does OS/2 rely on a human package manager? Because its architecture is from the early 1990ies. No need for automatic package managers back then.
However: It is quite arrogant to assume that all other OS maintainers (no matter whether these are the Linux, Windows, FreeBSD, whoever guys) are rather dim and incompetent to create such beasts for other OSes when in reality they were not needed. 201x software (especially bigger programs) are simply too complex for a manual approach.
Firefox 45 is a 2016 piece of software: The problems to get all DLLs together are not OS/2 specific - all the other OSes got package managers to do that job. NOBODY on other OSes asks for specific DLL requirements to be manually downloaded "somewhere" and copied into specific locations - the question for that (unless for specific research purposes) would be considered plain stupid and obsolete.
The RPM/YUM port is an attempt driven by bitwise works and Arca Noae to close this gaping hole in the OS/2 architecture.
So:
If you want to run software the 1990ies way on a 1990ies OS, please use software from the 1990ies - an automatic package manager would not really be required then.
If you want to run software from the 201x on a 1990ies OS, please do as the ones who DO THE WORK on that stuff suggest. We know what we are doing and why we are doing it the way we do it.
If you do not want to do it the suggested way - you are free to do so. You just need to do A LOT OF RTFM and use PMDLL as a tool to overcome the arising difficulties...
Maybe it is time for you to review your point of view. But please don't steal our time by asking 1990ies questions in 2017. They have been solved - use RPM/YUM - that IS the solution.
It's a disadvantage of lacking competition.
It looks like you are suffering from blatant illusions. I wish the OS/2 market and community was big enough to make competion a healthy option to get the best alternative solution for a problem. The reality is, that the main problem is, to get enough manpower to complete ONE solution for a single problem.
Discussions whether there would have been other (possibly better) solution is senseless - there is simply nobody who will create it.
Critisizing certain aspects of current software (OS and application) is absolutely valid and welcome - however make sure you got a viable alternative solution at hand, a simple rant just is not good enough.