So I need to have as many apps as the number of websites I visit in a month? Hacker news, Reddit, NY Times, other news sites, BoingBoing, my kids' school, each restaurant, each airline I might ever book, Craigslist, etc etc etc?

That's ridiculous. Browsers exist for a reason.

I agree, and yet a lot of users seem to expect apps. To them, if you only have a web site you look unprofessional. Even though we all know perfectly well that most apps are repackaged web sites.

I don't think I have ever felt that only a website feels unprofessional. Anecdotal, but still. A well built, well designed, responsive site is all I need to know that someone is on top of it.

I'd rather see them do 1 method very well than 2 methods haphazardly

Most of those sites operate as apps, and browsers have mostly become an OS. So yes, that does fit my perspective.

Many of those websites don't even need to exist, as pure informational portals. They should just be boards in a (indeally decentralized, uniform) network of news source

Web apps are the barrier? That are accessible to anyone with a browser?

Or gate-kept app stores?

Can you elaborate on this? In particular, the use of "everyone" -- do you really mean everyone? Can you describe some of the common arguments about why not everyone can have an app and explain why they are logically wrong?

Yes, I mean everyone. What we currently deal with are artificial limits imposed by gatekeepers (app stores), and web developers (particularly ones that want to use backend as collateral control). Neither of these are technical problems that should exist.

That reads quite differently from your statement. The limits imposed by app stores are real challenges that keep people from building apps. That’s a very logical reason to avoid it. It seems your original statement would be better phrased, “There is no logical reason why there should be so many boundaries preventing everyone from having an app.”

But even then, it ignores the technical hurdles an individual or organization must leap to build an app. Languages and ecosystems to learn, full of idiosyncrasies and best practices. Complexities of deployment pipelines, seeking incompatibilities between devices. I’ve worked with Android before and lemme tell you, I’ll move to a different industry before I do that again. (Kotlin is wonderful, at least!)

Compared to web, where you pick the browsers you want to support and it works. Where there is constant warfare between vendors to improve performance and get closer to the native experience. Where you have a massive pool of talent and a low barrier to entry. How is this even close?

Obviously they're arguing from a pragmatic point of view, as opposed to one in which we (some) software engineers somehow control reality and successfully impose that's ideal to them.

Does the average user have their homescreen on the phone full of web apps bookmarked? I don't think so.