If I build a desktop app using one of the above-mentioned technologies, there is almost nothing "distributed" about it. HTML, CSS, Javascript. Which is where 99% of my UI building happens. The only thing "distributed" what comes to my mind and what I think you mean is what would be an API call in the browser, to fetch some data that the frontend needs. The equivalent in Electron/Tauri/etc. is usually some bridging API that you can call instead.
I never missed any GUI builder. Browser dev tools are phenomenal IMO, you can drag&drop elements across your layout, change any part of your styles and instantly see the effects, measure rendering performance, memory consumption, debug your Javascript or simulate different screen sizes.
About React, nobody forces you to use it. There is a myriad of frontend frameworks, at all levels of complexity. If you feel your app is so simple that you don't need any framework, you can do without. Frameworks (and again, there is a huge world outside React!) came up because they make managing state in complex UIs easier.