You are not stuck dealing with the forward/back button structure. iPhone web apps can be bookmarked like applications. The author can tell the iPhone that it w

You are not stuck dealing with the forward/back button structure. iPhone web apps can be bookmarked like applications. The author can tell the iPhone that it wants to be launched in full-screen mode, without the nav bar at the bottom of the screen. (I believe this also works on Android) Furthermore, web apps can be created that explicitly manage data and assets in a local store. Web apps can be quite responsive if they take advantage of this. A native app will likely be more responsive, but a web app isn't as limited as you seem to think.