This is all well and good when their native app actually works - in my experiences on Ubuntu (using i3, so that could be a factor) it freezes up my laptop completely. I was initially able to get the web version working by using the click-the-meeting-link-multiple-times trick, but now Zoom wants me to make an account to join meetings which I have no interest in doing.

My new strategy is to call in and say "Sorry, I can't see your screen because Zoom doesn't work on my computer," which is a completely unnecessary situation that Zoom creates by intentionally adding roadblocks to their web app.

It's hard to imagine why they'd want to push the desktop app that hard. I don't want to assume anything untoward, but it'd be a lot easier to dismiss the whole sending-data-to-China thing if they didn't try so hard to force you onto the version of their product that's capable of such a thing.