One thing that I found mind blowing initially was that unbricking my pixel 5 involved simply going to Google's install page for it in Chrome with the usb connected and it reflashed successfully.

Of course, there's nothing fundamentally new there, I'm sure Java applets could have done it on a serial port if somebody tried, but it was impressive given how gimped most os-level access is in a browser.

So I would imagine you could write just enough webusb code to get new instruments to work that you wouldn't need local apps as a manufacturer.