I'm not sure how you define "value type" (it certainly isn't C++ terminology; are you coming from C#?) but in any case, this is a distinction without a difference. You can replace every use of std::unique_ptr with std::vector and just switch a few method calls (like using .data() instead of .get()) and you'd achieve the same effects, just slower. I'm not sure what the point would be though, other than to be able to claim that you don't use smart pointers.