"local first" to me translates almost immediately into the following:

- What if I don't have that device? - How do I reliably sync between devices? - How do I deal with local storage limits of a device?

Silverbullet has become very nearly my illustration of the perfect app, because it has a local, offline feature but syncs back to a server controlled by me. The weakness with SB specifically is any limits on browser storage, though that's less likely an issue for a note-taking tool that is, for me, 99.9% text.

Compare Logseq, which used to be browser-based and self-hostable, to their more recent "local-first, app-based" model, with a $15/mo charge to sync and severe usability restrictions in a world where I cannot install arbitrary software at work.

So, local-first has for me become synonymous with inconvenience, proprietary, and revenue channel for the dev rather than security and flexibility.