[taharvey]

Figma approaches design from an investors point of view.

Like most other web-SaaS tools, they aren't browser based because its better for the user. They sacrifice speed, native functionality, and usability for owning via server-side control over your wallet on a subscription plan.

The startup market in no-longer customer driven. It is investor thesis driven.

[satvikpendem]

That is an odd way to put it if you had read the article. It notes that precisely because Figma was on the web that it was able to have collaboration features, have linkability to specific Figma files, and other such features, and thus serve the customer. As well, I am not sure how they sacrifice speed or usability exactly, when they even use Rust compiled to WASM in order to create the entire UI.

I can concede that SaaS can be, in many cases, be merely investor driven, but I cannot concede that Figma is one of those. Even being investor driven, such as having a subscription business plan, is not bad for the customer per se, as a sustainable business is better than a dead one. Software costs money to make, and more importantly, to upkeep and add features too. I am not sure how you can expect one time fees, especially for enterprise software like Figma is (personal plans are free), in this day and age.