It's been controversial from the start. It's essentially using a browser engine in the same way as Java uses the JVM runtime, so all the performance arguments against that apply to Electron too--probably even more so given that the JVM is specifically optimized to be used that way whereas Blink/V8 is not.

Personally, I think the idea of a cross-platform application runtime with GUI capabilities is a good one, browser-based or otherwise. The only real problem is every app needing its own, rather than using some sort of shared (but partitioned) app subsystem based around a central browser engine. I think the Chrome apps were supposed to be essentially that, but didn't work out. That said, Chrome basically treats every tab as a separate browser instance, so Electron really isn't as bad as all that compared to a browser-based app.

The problem is everyone compares it to native, not acknowledging the dev's choice was probably Electron vs. no support off the dev's main OS (usually Windows), rather than Electron vs. native support for Mac or Linux. I still remember when you had to have Windows to run most of the interesting productivity and development apps, so I'm pretty OK with extra overhead in exchange for the expanded support.