[berkes]

But a surprisingly large amount of apps don't need hardware functionalities or could easily provide (most of) their value without them.

Sure, some high end games. But they're more an exception. What other app are you thinking of?

[DotaFan]

This is true, if it's basic app I'd certainly recommend web technology. But it's also true that clients many times don't know what they want and where they're heading. So, before we decide on tech, I do analyze with my clients what are their plans for the future with the app. It does pan out many of them would like to have notifications, storage, camera, offline..

[berkes]

notifications, storage, camera and offline are all supported by web-apps though.

Maybe not safari, IDK, but globally the most used browsers support this and have done so for many years.