It kind of does: Jave EE was all about having single Java Application Servers running on each host, and deploying applications/services on top. In practice every service was built by the same company though, so focused moved toward shared libraries in containers and things like that: Search for OSGI.
The issue is both that the security concerns were way softer than they are today, and that all your dependencies better be deplorable in a JVM too. Modern ideas of having databases deployed along with the services that need them don't work quite as well as just using OS level virtualization. That said many a crufry old company still deploys hundreds of services to production by loading .war files into a cluster of servers running JBoss or WebLogic.
The issue is both that the security concerns were way softer than they are today, and that all your dependencies better be deplorable in a JVM too. Modern ideas of having databases deployed along with the services that need them don't work quite as well as just using OS level virtualization. That said many a crufry old company still deploys hundreds of services to production by loading .war files into a cluster of servers running JBoss or WebLogic.