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In my view the positive direction over 20 years has been how chrome has been receding. With full screen and split screen apps, all you see are the apps. The OS lets you swipe between them. So it would appear to me that the focus should rather be on the app ecosystem and the slow, mild poisoning from electron/web apps.

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I agree that the glut of electron apps is becoming a problem.

I disagree that Apple redesigning UIs to focus on content instead of chrome has improved usability. I'm thinking of 'style over substance' changes like hiding scrollbars, and making menus and menubars translucent. Those changes hurt usability.

Chrome has not been receding. Whitespace is chrome. But worse than that it's useless chrome that offers no functionality or visual hinting like skeuomorphic chrome did. Hiding functionality that used to be discoverable through menus behind invisible, sometimes baroque gestures is not an improvement for most people. I have family members who, several times a year, will mute their phone or dim their screen after accidentally bringing up control centre. Explaining what they did "wrong" to them after the fact is nearly impossible - "No don't drag from the edge like that, do it like this."

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