We built something similar at Mattermost, which (funnily enough) is a comparable application.
https://github.com/mattermost/mattermost-load-test-ng
https://mattermost.com/blog/improving-performance-through-lo...
> Isn't really just choosing which way to throw money at the problem? Hardware costs, vs. person-hours to maintain a thin client version?
That's fair, although the second option has (in my opinion) a better return on investment given by the knowledge and experience gain.