That would be quite surprising since Ubuntu Server appeared only after Ubuntu Desktop was already the #1 desktop Linux distribution (free CDs shipped worldwide, etc).
Canonical started developing sandboxed packages for Ubuntu phones ("click" packages which evolved into "snap" packages). At about the same time, Canonical was interested in getting other big distributions (RedHat, Suse...) to align on what software (kernel, glibc, GNOME, KDE...) to offer LTS on together, but there wasn't too big of an interest from other distributions (and tbh, I think that's a good thing: upstream open source projects would be strong-armed into caring about only a few versions that monopolist distros decided to base their LTSes on).
It is my guess that Canonical has (post-phones) invested in snaps to reduce the burden of maintaining the desktop and trying to earn some money in the process through the Snap Store. Flatpak seems to be Red Hat's slightly more open response that quickly followed.
The only benefit of Snaps/Flatpak for delivering newer versions of apps over just simply statically compiling everything into an app is that some of the things are shared between snaps (like frameworks, glibc...). You still get all of the same problems (theming, fonts,...).
Canonical started developing sandboxed packages for Ubuntu phones ("click" packages which evolved into "snap" packages). At about the same time, Canonical was interested in getting other big distributions (RedHat, Suse...) to align on what software (kernel, glibc, GNOME, KDE...) to offer LTS on together, but there wasn't too big of an interest from other distributions (and tbh, I think that's a good thing: upstream open source projects would be strong-armed into caring about only a few versions that monopolist distros decided to base their LTSes on).
It is my guess that Canonical has (post-phones) invested in snaps to reduce the burden of maintaining the desktop and trying to earn some money in the process through the Snap Store. Flatpak seems to be Red Hat's slightly more open response that quickly followed.
The only benefit of Snaps/Flatpak for delivering newer versions of apps over just simply statically compiling everything into an app is that some of the things are shared between snaps (like frameworks, glibc...). You still get all of the same problems (theming, fonts,...).