I just had a random thought. If ubuntu really wanted to push the desktop forward they would focus on web developers and some first class tooling around react (preloaded extensions or editor support).
Being a web developer, I would love this. Not sure how it would look in practice, but web developers are the ones that use Ubuntu server a lot, so why not have a web developer flavour for the desktop. I you and I can just dream a little, as the chances of this happening are seriously slim.
It might fit better into their existing line to make a developer-focused offering like Ubuntu Studio[1] which ships with a bunch of multimedia apps.