I have had plenty of problems making cross platform apps — and that’s my specialty and my niche, I do it every day. Not just cross platform, but across embedded devices, browsers, servers; truly cross platform.

I have, instead, found the platforms most difficult to work with are 1. android for its heavy reliance on Java (which is not an appropriate language on plenty of embedded systems and on systems where efficiency means money), 2. windows for its poor system api and heavily restrictive marketplace, and 3. Apple for its heavily restrictive marketplace.

Note, though, that none of this has to do with the web and web-like technologies. There is nothing stopping React or similar App frameworks from being deployed on mobile devices.

And, for the record, there is legal precedent for app lockdowns like these. We don’t need more laws — we need to enforce the precedent we already have. Find a lawyer who can be convinced that Windows DirectX and ie are illegal tying arrangements… find a lawyer that could be convinced of the difference between Metal and OpenCL+OpenGL.

That’s why we have these problems; it’s a lack of understanding from the departments responsible for prosecuting these illegal tying arrangements.