Low-code/No-code used to be called CASE back in the 90's. It had the same promises back then but is more popular today. I think the drive comes from management

Low-code/No-code used to be called CASE back in the 90's. It had the same promises back then but is more popular today. I think the drive comes from management more than devs, who always imagine that they can get programming done without paying programmer salaries. In some simple cases, non-devs can create their own software solutions with these tools. But it falls apart in two places: First in that the real complexity of software development is not syntax but architecture, and visual programming tools don't help with that. A big design or bad design is actually harder to work on in graphics than in text code. The second issue is the one you point out: lack of portability. Most GUI code builders lock your results into their platform, limiting its usefulness in the real world. There are cheap boards (like PyGamer) than can be programmed with a Scratch-like tool based on Google Blockly. That's the Microsoft MakeCode series. The good news is that it really writes Typescript under the hood and you can switch back and forth to see the real code -- or just edit the real code once the visual blocks become too complex or limiting. I have a hard time imagining that anyone is being given no-code tools to take home. The whole audience for that is more office workers trying to create various kinds of reports. The no-code tools don't produce portable apps that you could ship to a customer. There are two low-code tools that are used professionally: things like LabView for controlling scientific devices and small robots, and tools like Jupyter which really isn't an IDE but is used like one by people who need to write formulas but not apps.