My field is doing something similar.

Reproducible science is definitely a good goal, but reproducible doesn't mean maintainable. Really scientists should be getting in the habit of versioning their code and datasets. Of course a docker container is better than nothing, but I would much rather have a tagged repository and a pointer to an operating system where it compiles.

It's true that many scientists tend to build their results on an ill-defined dumpster fire of a software stack, but the fact that docker lets us preserve these workflows doesn't solve the underlying problem.