That being said, I have high hopes considering their latest efforts, the new terminal looks cool, powershell is useful and WSL2 looks to bridge the gap. I'm a die hard macOS user that requires Windows for a variety of work tasks, i'm glad to see the effort and competition.
EDIT: VS Code is the main place I run into this
And all this is available to developers out of the box. Very few "cross-platform UI toolkits" can come even close.
That said, a fully native app would be a better option, but Electron apps are ok (unless devs go out of their way to make them bad)
Additionally, browsers are one of the most out-of-place feeling applications because the look and feel is controlled by the website, not by your operating system.
Note that Chromium (and hence Electron) reimplements many of these things.
Kinda like how iTunes was brushed metal forever while the Finder was Aqua and some apps roll their own UI to mimic Aqua? It's not like either Apple or Microsoft produce consistent applications, let alone the lack of control they have over third party developers. There is also Carbon vs. Cocoa, where different programs get different services "for free" from the operating system (e.g. spell check). Apple is just as guilty as Microsoft.
Win32 and WPF are both more than "decade-old," so really you're down to two. I'm not sure that 3 toolkits in 24 years is "every other year."
Cocoa is more like targeting an evergreen browser. Just target the version that is just old enough to support enough users and you’re good (and users are happy). Unlike evergreen browsers, though, you do hit hard cutoffs once every few years, but I suspect navigating those means updating the compilation/signing process more than rewriting anything (correct me if I’m wrong).
Microsoft is the same as its always been but acting like Apple has a clear, unified, and sane design doesn't reflect the evidence.
Also as someone who only knows Linux and Windows and is not familiar with Mac OS, anytime I have to use it, it is a baffling experience, common things are done with gestures and keyboard shortcuts that one would never be able to intuit or discover. I find some random completely new Linux windows manager that Ive never seen before much easier to get to grips with than Mac OS.
I've been using LTSC on my work / gaming desktop for about 6 months and its been the best OS experience ive had since DOS. Everything works perfectly, and otherwise it just stays out of my way.
I'm conflicted about all this myself because I have a good experience with Win10 once I get all the extra nonsense removed, the settings changed, and my shell setup working. I feel like Windows rewards people who are willing to put the time into it now, but its not as easy as dealing with Mac OS where you basically just clear off the toolbar, put the shell and whatever dev apps onto it, and maybe tweak a few settings and you're okay to go.