I for one have been using docker on Linux for years and have to use a Mac at work, and I'm totally baffled by the fact i need to install docker desktop to use the CLI and don't get why you'd need or want the GUI.
And like I'm not all anti-GUI, it's just that docker is one of those things I've never even imagined using a GUI for
You don’t have to install docker desktop. The cli can be installed via homebrew. (Co)Lima, podman, or others, can be used to create a VM running the docker engine.
It’s just that Docker Desktop makes it easy and also provides other integrations like file system sharing etc.
I mean, it's nice to have a GUI when running multiple containers on Docker, or Kubernetes, but I've never used Docker Desktop on my work Mac either.
For Kubernetes, something like K9s [1] or Headlamp [2] works fine. I remember seeing something similar for Docker but I can't remember the name.