It's a bit heavy handed, but the VSCode "Live Server" plugin is the closest I've come. If I set code as the default file association for `.html`, then it's just one extra click to get it open in a browser with a local server.

This isn't going to work for everyone, but if you're dealing with non-tech-savvy but mostly-able-to-use-a-computer users, it can, and it being graphical seems to be less of a hill than if I tell people to run `python -m http.server` in the terminal (because, "what is a terminal"...)

There are multitude of ways to package a website for a local computer, Electron and ton of more lightweight alternatives. Actually it's the most popular way to make desktop software nowadays.

> There's no local-https server that I can teach a non-tech-savvy user to use.

Make one then. All the building blocks are out there, so all you need to focus on is UX.

It may be unfortunate in some sense, but they aren't wrong. And even smart end users shouldn't incur that much constant risk of malware, given how many threat actors are out there.