Oh, I was talking about AppImage, not Snap. Sorry.
I actually tried the Snap thing too, I don't remember how it went but I would say it was bad. I think I couldn't find a way to search for packages from the CLI.
If you're speaking of AppImage, what do you mean by "where are they hiding"? AppImages are quite literally exactly where you put them and nowhere else.
Probably that was appimaged, the daemon that handles some convenience things like menu integration and attempting (but usually failing) to show appimage files with icons. appimaged is entirely optional.
I actually tried the Snap thing too, I don't remember how it went but I would say it was bad. I think I couldn't find a way to search for packages from the CLI.