That is the threat. They're pushing hard to keep the "open web" competitive with native apps, so that the web is not abandoned as an app platform.
Eventually there's a point where the web platform is good enough that some companies choose to sunset native apps.
Delivering the same functionality across 3 disparate platforms is a waste of time and energy. Especially when the form factor in the end users hands is the same.
I get why it's that way now, but the question will come up over time. Especially for any app that needs live remote API calls to function.
Offering up every last conduit one could possibly expose on a general purpose platform, so that competing interests on the other side of the wire are all fighting on a level playing field to harvest all the imaginable minutia of every quiver of flesh (whether voluntary or reflexive) against a piece of smartphone glass, in an effort to line pockets, starts to feel a little obscene after a while.
And if any quarter should be given, the big bad companies will pack up their wares and refuse to conduct business in the commons, leaving the web to disintegrate and decompose back unto what geocities, myspace and aol used to look like? Not sure that’d be so terrible, tbh.
No.
I like my ebook reader app to automatically adjust to the light. I'd like to be able to build similar apps on the web platform.
I agree getting the security balance right is important though.