(which means that if you don't trust a provider, not only it's not safe to run the program, but it's also unsafe to install it)
Isn't it same for windows right now? `.msi` and `.exe` can execute arbitrary code right?
If you must install proprietary software on your Linux system, either package it yourself or use something like Flatpak or Snap (or even AppImage).
Hopefully in the future vendors will increasingly move to providing well-sandboxed Flatpak packages by default.
packages are cryptographically signed by the packager, by the way on Debian you add the key when you install a new repository. The signature tells you "This package has been built by X and has not been tempered in the meantime", not "X and this package are not malicious, I promise".
> you have the option to abort the install of an untrusted package before it does something malicious
How do you do this in practice?
If I run apt install p or or dpkg -i p.deb, the thing is installed. APT asks you for confirmation if it has to install additional dependencies but that's it.
I don't have no guaranty such like for any package, I can install it without worrying something bad won't happen during its installation.
Of course you should not install untrusted packages, but still. The same could not be said if the package format didn't have anything to specify arbitrary install scripts.