First, this is a false dichotomy. There are alternatives to Electron that don't require a 120 MiB runtime and don't involve using the OS APIs directly.
Second, this is not a criticism on application writers, but on Electron itself. It could use a runtime available on computers (virtually every computer has a browser) or, at least, a shared runtime that would download itself.
Bundling a browser with EVERY different app is not only a waste of space and of RAM, but also a security issue: now you have to wait for each app developer to update the app in case there's a security problem with Electron, Chromium or any of its 2000 dependencies, and that's "if" they upgrade. And that update takes at least another 120 MiB to download, for each Electron app you have.
Instead of downloading 120 MiB for each app, each app could come in a small package and only download the runtime if it's not available in the computer yet. Java got it right in the 90s, .NET got it right in the 2000s, although downloading the runtime had terrible UX for stupid marketing reasons (you had to provide e-mail to download from the Sun or the MS website).
Second, this is not a criticism on application writers, but on Electron itself. It could use a runtime available on computers (virtually every computer has a browser) or, at least, a shared runtime that would download itself.
Bundling a browser with EVERY different app is not only a waste of space and of RAM, but also a security issue: now you have to wait for each app developer to update the app in case there's a security problem with Electron, Chromium or any of its 2000 dependencies, and that's "if" they upgrade. And that update takes at least another 120 MiB to download, for each Electron app you have.
Instead of downloading 120 MiB for each app, each app could come in a small package and only download the runtime if it's not available in the computer yet. Java got it right in the 90s, .NET got it right in the 2000s, although downloading the runtime had terrible UX for stupid marketing reasons (you had to provide e-mail to download from the Sun or the MS website).