That's a nice theory. Here's the reality:
1) Client wants to build 4 native apps for Android, iPhone, iPad, Blackberry, WinMo7.
2) Client is in sticker shock that it will cost $100k+ to roll out
3) Client does a bit of googling, drawn like a deer in headlights to the Titanium showcase page
4) Client ditches native apps, goes the Titanium route because it's cheaper, doesn't realize that most of those are funded directly or indirectly by Titanium
5) Client fails to monetize application because users think it sucks.
6) Chalks it up to "the market isn't ready", repeat from step 1.
This story is roughly 75% of the mobile contracting market by volume, although for obvious reasons <1% in terms of app sales. It comes up a lot in enterprise mobile dev as well.
The moral of the story is that it's much easier to focus on the upfront development cost and ignore the unquantifiable murky cost of ending up with a bad product. It's the same thought process behind e.g. credit card debt--present pleasure for future pain is easy to rationalize.
Cute theory, but lots of good apps failed to get monetized as well, even when users like them (say 4.5 stars, and lots of great reviews?).
The failure can be in the promotion or marketing of apps at this point. There are too many apps out there for good apps to be discoverable without promotion.
Also, good and bad UI can be written in native and HTML/JavaScript. Some apps really don't need native to be good. It really depends on the app; the content and the UI design really trump fancy native-only effects.
1. They're generally not as fast as native web apps. At the very least they don't appear to be so.
2. A user/employee is more familiar with apps that are native and they will understand them better than a web app.
It is up to your customer to know what they're willing to sacrifice, immediate cash or the quality and recognition of their product in the long run.
You are patently wrong in your assessment and seem to miss some major aspects of the Titanium architecture.
Read this documentation: http://developer.appcelerator.com/apidoc/mobile/1.4/Titanium... and tell me how I should use custom fonts. I reported this issue in early July.