I can understand that, and certainly the web platform is much nicer than it used to be – especially when building for a constrained, known environment like Elec

I can understand that, and certainly the web platform is much nicer than it used to be – especially when building for a constrained, known environment like Electron. Don't discount the native platforms though, which are still very powerful. Constraint-based layout can be frustrating at first, but I've found it's not noticeably more awkward than CSS after a little experience. Similarly, it's no worse figuring out how to build a native Windows GUI than it is figuring out what CSS or JS framework to use. Just a bit of research :)