[jauntywundrkind]

There's Isolated Web Apps, an extension of PWAs where you download an app then it has no way to dial home. Effectively the app is it's own origin. https://chromestatus.com/feature/5146307550248960

You still don't know what an app will send home. It doesn't block network access. But with eval banned in web app stores, it means you at least know what code you are running.

You're not wrong about cups & web as a platform's utility. And damn it's amazing, fully onboard. But the local-first folks I think are onto a major thread, hit the nail on the head that connected computing is taking back the glimmer of power and control users briefly saw in the short-lived Personal Computing era. Yeah, technically you can use the web locally to manage things within reach, but when someone launches a web app, that's almost never the case. In almost every case the webapp is strictly dependent on services of the site.

And that's what local-first wants to change!