I can't agree with this more. After having numerous problems with native android development before, I decided to give flutter a go recently for a mobile app idea I've been wanting to do.
After getting byzantine and seemingly unsolvable errors from flutter doctor and gradle for the 3rd time after completely reinstalling it every time, I just gave up and started making an app in tauri instead.
I've seen this happen over 10+ external companies that I've worked with. I'll provide a website with the "app" that they can play with and literally 99% of the time they won't even look at it until it's in app form. Same codebase, same UI, same features, it's insane but I've seen it happen enough times to expect it. I think it's partly a prestige thing but whatever the cause, I don't see myself getting away from dealing with Xcode/Android Studio/App Store Connect/Google Play Console. At least Android Studio is built on IntelliJ... and that's about the only nice thing I can say about it (other than thank god it's not eclipse based anymore).
It's sad how the concept of native app leads to walled gardens, instead of the web being promoted and improved to be the primary way to deliver apps. And the web need serious and continual efforts to modernize its of development and use experience, but it is far superior model than native apps IMHO.
Since America just won't do it, the EU should force Apple and Google to allow the experience of using mobile web apps to be on par with that of native apps. At the very least, allow a one click way to add a web app to the home screen easily.