The way I see it is there are two levels of WordPress development. Casuals and professionals.

**Professionals** have business-level logic they maintain through the utilization of the WordPress CMS. A good example of this is a WooCommerce shop making tens of thousands of dollars every month. If that site goes down due to my mishandling of a WP plugin/core/theme update, I can absolutely get sued by the client for damages to their company... Rightfully so because due to negligence and poor development practices I have literally closed the doors to their online business and directly effected their potential revenue stream.

Now, as a professional I have a dedication to testing, maintaining, upgrading, and building products that are secure and functional over time. I have to make sure (via software audit) that any code in which my code relies upon works 100% with the software (ie: website) in which I have published; for money, for my clients. I see it as my responsibility to "marry" my WordPress installations with Composer and use proper development practices such as implementing package management and version control.

FACT: Anytime I update a plugin, a theme or the WP core I risk introducing issues to my sites. To combat this I track changelogs, audit third party plugin/theme code, have a strict testing policy, fully version control everything on a private GitLab server, do development reviews, implement semantic versioning, adhere to PSR-5/PHPDoc standards (cough as much as possible), do FULL file/DB-level backups before any change, and last (but not least!) implement composer on EVERY project I self-host.

I do this because my clients PAY me to do it. My clients pay me for consistently working websites that are fully tested, documented, and exhibit almost perfect functionality/uptime. Speaking as a professional - you can take your objection to this marriage and shove it.

**Casuals** run WordPress because it's "easy". Yes - truth be told some of my clients are at this level and prefer to self-host their sites without proper developer management. They pay less for their product because in the long-run I can't guarantee the functionality of their project over time and allow them to do their own core, theme, and plugin updates.

Truth is they often run their sites into the ground, or just have general issues managing it. I then end up charging these folks for my full hourly maintenance rate to come back into their project and fix messes caused by software updates/modifications gone wrong. They are the people who can deal with a day or two of downtime if something breaks and I specifically make them sign paperwork that takes me 100% out of the scope of liability as soon as I hand the keys back to them after a project/bugfix/update.

For these clients yeah, using Composer breaks down. But in the long-run if you're looking to manage/sell/build a site that needs true high-availability then go learn version control and package management.

TLDR: Composer is a tricky and finicky gal to be married to but guess what: a stable marriage takes a lot of work and learning. Truth is many people aren't ready for the responsibility and stability a solid marriage to a worthwhile gal brings. Otherwise if you're still foolin' around letting your (almost always less-than-competent) clients touch their WordPress installs in funny places don't come knocking on Composer's door. She's a clean and classy gal, wants a stable man and don't want no scrubs.