If you target the classic .NET Framework on Windows, you could just ship a single folder for a long time The .NET Framework is shipped with Windows (though not necessarily at the latest version), and the deployment strategy for your average desktop/console app is just "copy the entire bin folder".

That's true. Single file deployments were also supported in .NET Framework, only a bit obscure by registering a callback for the assembly loader and explicitly bundling every dependency as a resource in the build process.