I disagree. When I want to deliver a piece of software to my parents I first think about a web solution (they are a symbol for me for >80% of PC users). I just uninstalled a browser tool bar from my step father's pc last weekend. There are simply to many bad actors out there. The browser sandbox works pretty well against them. My parents have become very hesitant to install anything, even iOS updates, because they don't like change and fear that they might do something wrong.

I agree that JS is not a gold standard. Still it works most of the time and with typescript stapled on top it is acceptable.

Time has proven again and again (not only in tech) that the simple solutions will prevail. Want to change it? Build a simpler and better solution. I don't like that too but that's human nature at work.