If it was just a matter of a fresh start with a new language/stack, then Android/iOS/macOS dev would be compelling experiences. But they're not. And they're changing just as much, bandaging over themselves so much that you end up credentializing in a whole lineage of idiosyncrasies worse than just putting a <select> in a modal, except unlike the web you're just building something that works on an iPhone.

Clientdev is hard.

Client Dev has regressed since those days, now it's in a state where devs can't even imagine anything better, but we clearly had that...

Try Sciter then, it was designed precisely for running desktop UI using HTML/CSS as UI declaration languages.

I was native UI developer initially, then Web Frontend Architect who returned back to desktop development taking HTML/CSS with me to Sciter.

Am I the only one who thinks the sooner the web goes back to just delivering static documents, the better?

As a dev if have to choose between a flawed but still very capable open platform and proprietary walled gardens where corporations wield absolute and arbitrary control I’ll take the open option and so should you.