I wonder if they're ever going to bring the web version anywhere close to feature parity with the apps, or update the UWP app that's been abandoned for years.
You're probably talking about the desktop web version I assume. If you check out the mobile web version its actually pretty close features wise, theres direct messaging, stories, creation with webgl filters,etc. The desktop version of these is admittedly lagging behind though - but I'm optimistic that desktop will get some more love in future :)
Making web UIs is excruciating compared to mobile (where everything is designed to be as easy as possible for you) so I don't blame them. Their main userbase doesn't use laptop/desktop computers anyway. This is the trend now, where the website is just an ad to download the app.
The mobile web version and apps appear to use nearly the exact same react/react native codebase. I'm mostly just confused as to why the desktop web version is completely different (and much worse because they removed almost all the features) than the mobile web version.