I am trying to figure out whether it is possible to use the MATLAB COM server (automation server) without installing the whole MATLAB package (but only the runtime libraries).
I will assume that MATLAB COM server is Matlab engine and runtime libraries are MCR.
And the answer is:
No, because MCR is available to re-distribute freely whereas Matlab requires a license.
This is taken directly from here:
You must use an installed version of MATLAB; you cannot run the MATLAB engine on a machine that only has the MATLAB Compiler Runtime (MCR).