Using an appropriate base image (debian for dev, alpine for production).

No you don't. It's nonsensical to use a "convenient" development environment, and then make the production application work in something more bare-bones/stripped down/different. I've never used Alpine Linux, but even I know there's a LOT of subtle differences between it and Debian. Nontrivial stuff that matters, like C library implementation (GNU libc vs. musl) and init system (systemd vs. sysv init). You don't want that, because it opens up a multiverse full of potential, exclusively bad surprises that you'll be unprepared to debug.