"Beyond the fact that almost all web "apps" are actually honest documents, ..."

The www is a document publishing scheme

The documents can contain links ("URLs") pointing to files of any type, text or binary

The documents can contain hyperlinks to each other

Option #1: Publish HTML with visible hyperlink to source code, the www user chooses whether or not to download the code, compile it and run it on their computer

Option #2: Publish HTML with hidden link to executable code, presume that the www user is using a program that contains an interpreter for the code, downloads it to temporary storage and runs it automatically without any www user interaction

Option #2 exposes www users to endless surveillance and monotonous annoyances

It is amusing to watch so-called "technical" people try control this default behaviour in popular browsers, the automatic running of other peoples' Javascripts

Their "solution" is to write their own Javascripts, e.g., "browser extensions"

Whoever maintains the browser software can limit or disable this "solution" at any time for any reason;

Currently companies engaged in online surveillance-based, programmatic, targeted advertising are the browser maintainers

But that nonsense only applies to Option #2

Option #1 is still in heavy usage

Although the number of www users aware of it may be relatively small

For myself as a document consumer, the www still functions well as a document publishing scheme

s/advertising/& services/