Many web apps do not use node.js on the backend, so I don't really think that's the point of electron. It's more that it's a way to develop a cross platform app

Many web apps do not use node.js on the backend, so I don't really think that's the point of electron. It's more that it's a way to develop a cross platform application without having to deal too much with native differences. Being able to leverage web tech for the UI also means you can reuse your companies existing expertise. In that sense, these alternatives all meet the requirement, as on the UI side they all use standard web technology. The difference is 1) they don't package the entire chrome runtime which saves a lot of memory and 2) they use different backend languages, some of which may match a given companies expertise better. E.g. if you already have a lot of Go or Rust developers, these alternatives might allow you to reuse existing backend code in these languages. Finally, the experience of developing with the alternatives is often superior to electron. Every time I've setup electron for a new project I've spent days messing with complex tooling. In contrast, at least with wails, I've spent close to zero time on tooling. Ironically, the time I have spent on tooling has been on the javascript side.