C# has AOT compilation which creates a single, native binary. This has gotten so much better with .NET 10 and since the introduction of source generators to deal with reflection issues.
Also, check out nanoFramework for a .NET runtime that can run on MCUs like the ESP32 [1]
Cool, I didn't know this. I see it's been a thing since .NET 8, but it also looks like something that is perhaps mostly meant for hobby projects? Or maybe I'm getting that wrong.
Definitely started that way for me. It was cool to see a console app written in C# be compiled straight to native and run. Since then, a lot of work has been done to make AOT viable for more workloads.
I wouldn't use it for an MVC application yet because a lot of features won't work but there are plenty of other areas that are using it now and one of the biggest examples is Avalonia apps compiling to native.
Also, check out nanoFramework for a .NET runtime that can run on MCUs like the ESP32 [1]
[1] https://github.com/nanoframework/Home