Although, I had also assumed that developers would be moving toward web-based apps anyway.
But with WebAssembly and other advancements in web technology, the performance of Figma can rival and even exceed that of native apps, and it beats the pants off Sketch for collaboration and cross-platform compatibility. Figma is just a better product, and that's in large part due to being web-native. You cannot make a Mac app to compete with it without putting enormous resources towards all of the things it gets for free by being on the web.
With a real app on my computer, I can continue to use my documents indefinitely. Even if the app developer goes out of business and it can no longer run in the latest version of macOS, I can set up a VM or keep an old computer or boot disk around to run it.
That will never be the case for apps running on someone else’s server.
These base practicalities are why, no matter how good the user experience of Figma, I can never rely on it for anything important or long-term.
Sketch is also generally more friendly to people trying to take their Sketch documents elsewhere — the Sketch file format is publicly documented, which has allowed several other apps (including Figma) to be able to read it. Figma has yet to do the same for its format, which reeks of lock-in and rubs me the wrong way.
Figma would earn a lot of goodwill if they published their specification and assured users and devs in its ecosystem that the format won’t change out from under them. Even then though, they could very easily say one thing and then do another. It’s an unavoidable uncertainty that comes with web apps.
Who archives besides a few wonks reading HN? UX is one step above sketching on a napkin, it's not the final project.
Is that really a nerd issue or is it a business continuity issue? Would a professional designer or consultant ever want to rely on something like this, let alone a large business with many employees?
I probably have older files on Google Docs than documents on my computer -- Local archival isn't inherently safer. "When Google goes out of business.." used to be a reasonable thing to say, a while ago.
Losing access to the account is bigger concern. You need backups, wherever you store your important files. I wish Google made it easier to make incremental backups of Google Drive.