Another reason is that the OS itself has an incentive to push apps because they make so much money off them. I hate the "walled garden" environment that's deve

Another reason is that the OS itself has an incentive to push apps because they make so much money off them. I hate the "walled garden" environment that's developed around mobile apps. That said, I think native apps are superior in some cases. You can use them offline, they typically get better performance, and they are top-level, right on your home screen, rather than having to go through a browser and search for them. There are some mild other advantages like being able to have alerts and other interactions with your OS, or getting rid of the browser UI clutter entirely.