And the worst part is, they might win. Lots of apps are web based with WASM and WebGL like you say, which are purely client side, and lots of people that need to do work might not have good enough computers to run such apps, if we assume (and I believe this to be true) that applications with more and more complexity will be pushed onto the web browser as the universal app interface. If a server can render those apps better and send them back, the client doesn't have to any work.
We continuously invent and reinvent the terminal/mainframe architecture, it appears like.
Might? They will win, is it not obvious at this point that every single app in the near future will be sandboxed in some way? The unix grey beards had a couple decades to prove they could write secure software and they failed.
Oh wait, they did create a true cross-platform platform: the browser.
Could be worse I guess, there are those that ship a whole OS with the application.
but if you just want an app that works reliably without having to worry about what type of computer you work on, it's very "web". in my books, the ability to compile a unity game to run on the web is exactly why web apps are so great right now.