Thanks for sharing your insights. I appreciate the viability of the Mono option. Back in the early web development days (an approach that continues to this day), achieving cross-browser usability meant constraining design to the few portable features that worked well. It seems from your statement that the similar might be the case (product design within the constraints of the portable HTML5 featureset) which would mean better trained product designers (to understand which design elements common in native apps are more costly in PG apps) or more collaboration between them and developers.
But as you said, Mono/Xamarin is a technically better option with the same ultimate goal. Though a couple trade-offs there are unavailability of the source and upfront licensing costs.