any marginally successful "local-first" app is going to go and raise $10m in vc, switch to software as a service, and add an enterprise mode that requires user permissions and data access to be managed on the server
Why couldn't an enterprise run a "device" (a server) which others can easily sync to ("sync.enterprise.com") and which also only allows authorized users to access data which they're allowed to access? Maybe using Macaroons or something and devices can still sync locally via Bluetooth, Wifi, or whatever.
Now you have a full back up of everything on that server which IT could now more easily ensure it backed up, secured, and etc.
Not to mention the same idea could be used by a normal person just running a NAS at home or a server in DO/AWS/GCS/etc.
I've been doing some work on it over the last few days: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-toomim-httpbis-b...
As soon as that one company abandons the local-first model, a gap opens, which will (usually, eventually) be filled by a new company offering local-first until that new company does the same.
As long as the companies don’t band together and agree to end it, there should be a company offering that model somewhere somehow.
Solving this problem isn't about being local-first. It's about being local-last. You have to be able to make more money by selling a software license than you make by selling equity and chasing user acquisition and retention.
Then we'll see people waking up to the fact that all this proprietary data is a liability and subscriptions are golden handcuffs and people will finally get back to making real software again