Nowadays there are hardly any applications done on the desktop, full stop.
I agree that the JVM would benefit from being usable for a) command-line utilities that are lightweight enough to use in pipelines, and perhaps also b) decent native GUI applications (if you believe that niche is still important). But you don't need the capability for OS development to do those things. I mean, Python does those things. I don't think Scala Native is or should be serious about OS development.
The guys paying us didn't got the memo apparently.
Nor did the ones targeting Android, iOS and IoT LCD displays.
What is an IoT LCD Display and who is targeting them in the same way they target Android and iOS? Sounds like some class of hardware, but only thing I can find by searching is toy projects hooking up an LCD to a RaspberryPi or Arduino
They are targeting them the same way as iOS and Android in the sense that those type of applications are native to the underlying platform without any kind of browser playing the role of an OS.
Java is failure on the desktop, nowadays besides IDEs and a few FOSS tools there are hardly any applications done in Java on the desktop.
If Google hadn't forked it for Android, it would be yet another server language.
Besides Android, we only get RFPs for JEE projects nowadays.
Also all the features that should bring Java up to speed with the new generation of compiled languages in value types, generics and AOT compilation as standard toolchain feature are planned for Java 10 or later.
Why do you think Scala guys are exploring Scala Native?