[0xcde4c3db]

I might be totally off base here, but I get the sense that native widgets have become a skeuomorph for following the common UX conventions of the platform you're running on, with the latter being what brings the real value. The equivalent conventions for web apps and their desktop derivatives are much looser and don't yield as much consistency on which to build effective user expectations and habits. People who experienced the shift can tell something is missing, and the most obvious correlate is the disappearance of native widgets.

[SiempreViernes]

Maybe you mean that "native widgets" has become just a byword for "following platform conventions"?

[esrauch]

I think he means "things tend to either with follow conventions and use native widgets, or they do neither". Users can internalize that dichotomy, and recognize that as soon as they don't see native widgets they probably aren't getting platform conventions either.

[0xcde4c3db]

Basically that, yes. I don't think people are necessarily conscious of the association, though.