also worth noting that hotwire is dead according to DHH in this talk. The rendering html server side is old way now
(disclaimer: I'm a CEO of HTMX)
Keep in mind DHH is working on an email app, it makes sense he sees native as the default option for that over pushing everything through the web when the barrier to entry lowered dramatically.
Hotwire is not explicitly a cross-platform concept. It's primarily a way to build web apps in the browser which is not going away any time soon. The only difference is in 2026 you're just more likely to vibecode a native mobile app than build a web/React Native version. Likewise you may build a native Desktop version instead of an Electron wrapper.
So even if we can generate an app easily now, is that a wise choice for every business?
Same with server side rust. A high volume transactional backend email service makes sense there. The base layer of a CRM managing a lot of business logic?
Life will go on much the same. We just have more options to say yes to 'native' with LLMs, we can experiment more with ideal scenarios rather than a religious adherence to cross platform or single-framework merely for team DX simplicity.
The web makes apps worse by forcing a fairly strict sandbox, even as Google keeps trying to loosen it. Think of a messaging app that hides in your notification tray, that's a trivial UX thing that's impossible on the web.
Server side rendering makes sense for mostly static content, but for web applications, a front end framework and a back-end API are a much better match.