Take a trivial example of desktop application integration, which is with us since Windows 3.11 - common file and printing dialog. Nothing standard like that on the web. Most web applications won't let you even export the data in editable format.
UI - horrible. Desktops had standard menus and shortcuts since 1980s. In fact, many SPAs are trying to invent their own desktop.
I could go on.. the fragmentation of web apps is so much larger than fragmentation of desktop apps.
So a few weeks ago, I'm sitting in the waiting room at my doctor's offices. And they seem to be running late. And the waiting room is filling up. So I go to the receptionist's window, and ask what's up.
Turns out that their ISP was having problems. And they were totally dead in the water. They had no local backup. And knew nothing. No patient data. No schedule. Nothing.
So hey, I just left, and rescheduled. But damn.
A browser could run bare metal for what I care.
What do you do when the internet is crashed / your app is down?
I like the data-sync & backup part of web apps - you don't have to save etc. and your whole machine can just fall into a river but you still have your work. But I'd rather do this with a seperate solution and keep stuff on my PC so I can access it without a network.
By providing a minimal kernel for juggling browser instances, local file system and browser specific "native" APIs.
Welcome back to the timesharing days, just with prettier UIs.
It is however the pace how things are going, even most mobile apps are modern versions of those 2-tier apps during the 90s.
I prefer using apps with ncurses interface to many web apps. Also the standards are not good enough for my demands. I've worked in web development and I know how tedious it is to re-implement the wheel for each and every user (at least it feels that way) because you have to ensure everything is rendered and works on 10 different browsers (different versions of course because who want's to update?). Also you have the devices (I don't even want to think about that) etc...
It is nearly 2k19 and still centering stuff with CSS seems to be a huge deal. That's just not very assuring for me.
This is happening. The web is becoming the de-facto desktop environment.