On the other hand, allowing for a native desktop app could have caused it to end up in the same state as Microsoft's apps on the web (e.g. the web version of Po

On the other hand, allowing for a native desktop app could have caused it to end up in the same state as Microsoft's apps on the web (e.g. the web version of PowerPoint is pretty awful), which would have undermined a key differentiator between Docs and Microsoft's suite. I am not sure what has held gSuite back all these years, but the pandemic seems to have brought them out of their slumber.