If the web set us back 20 years, why weren't application programming frameworks able to bolt on some kind of networking/browsing capabilities and take the crown

If the web set us back 20 years, why weren't application programming frameworks able to bolt on some kind of networking/browsing capabilities and take the crown away from the web, with all of their l33t "application" abilities? My answer: your application programming wasn't actually that valuable to real humans. The web leapt 20 years ahead on the things that actually mattered to the world, and we lost some glitz that really didn't. I think the web actually has far too many capabilities for most applications, and application frameworks are mostly a racket to keep application programmers and professional application users in a lucrative dance of wasting each other's time. The vast majority of people can't even string together two functions, which js quite possibly the most powerful thing computers can do. For all of our effort we can't even give the people that most basic of capabilities, something five year olds can do with a little guidance. Because programmers are obsessed with GUI animations and digital cockpits and enabling professional app users to bend to the arbitrary whims of their supervisors. Because when we imagine "power" we don't picture collective control of outcomes that matter to us, we think of the sensation we get when we can individually make a fancy tool do arbitrary things. I realize that's just a rant, so I'll ask: what outcomes matter to you, that you feel are impossible on the web?