Anyways thanks for writing this up OP, it was an interesting read and I am a Kagi customer so I liked learning about them.
Not sure why OP makes no mention of this in their blog post - perhaps they thought those parts were unimportant? In which case I am not surprised at the results.
You can absolutely have terminal-inspired web apps, see http://www.coboloncogs.org/
The project was well made, but my read on it was that they wanted to be shown something interesting. Even if it wasn't as well made of polished, I got the impression they would have preferred something "fun" or imaginative.
- Title: Make something fun for the customer.
Then your performance review:
- Manager: We cannot tell you why, but you failed at your job.