Why are unikernels always compared to containers? Unikernels are obviously not meant to solve generic compute needs. They are per definition niche systems that do single, simple tasks.

There is a lot of stuff that isn't done in containers or at least isn't done well. Network functions, CPU-based IoT, serverless.

Packaging up a complex application in a container and moving it around seems to work quite well. You get to abstract away the core operating system and that is all well and good.