MCP Apps are the only way to build a connector that's actually usable from inside the Claude and ChatGPT apps. They return chunks of UI alongside the tool result, so a CLI simply can't provide the same functionality.

And you can't expect an average user to install a CLI on their machine just to search for flights or do shopping for example.

I work at Alpic, where we build Skybridge, a framework for developing MCP Apps. Our users have apps published on the ChatGPT and Claude stores, and they've seen traffic quietly growing over the last few months. Traffic isn't massive yet, but it costs little to stake out ground on a new channel and be ready if it takes off.