> Amusingly, we see the repeat of this in "desktop" apps that are just web technologies in a browser, wasting CPU time and RAM for "ease" of development.

Web is chosen because it is the fastest way to hit all platforms, not because it's a skill issue.

> a mess of JS callbacks makes it difficult to see the initiator of anything

Async/await is available in most browsers since 2017, what year are you from?

I think the initial idea of being the fast to hit all platforms was the idea, but this has meant a lack of skill in developers who don't know about each platform, so you end up with a mess of apps that attempt to (badly) replicate native elements like menus.

You are right about async/await. I am old! (But I still find the development of software in a large JS system unmanageable versus old C++ development approaches).