> This is how cross-platform development used to be done.
Not for at least 20 years. We've had Qt, GTK, WxWidgets for longer than that. Those GUI toolkits are how cross-platform developer "used to be done", and to a large extent still is.
Electron is not the only way to do cross-platform, and there are lots of reasons why it absolutely is not the best way. What it does have in its favor is leveraging the knowledge of developers who've only ever worked on webstacks. Not much else.
Another thing Electron has going for it is better built-in accessibility support, at least on Windows. wx is fine as long as you stick to the wrappers over native widgets; and there are caveats even then (e.g. having to use different wx classes to get a native list view on different platforms). Last time I checked, GTK is still inaccessible with screen readers on Windows and Mac. Qt seems OK; I haven't done a detailed evaluation lately, but I would still bet on Electron coming out ahead, particularly on Windows.
Yes, a11y matters and needs to be attended to for apps where it makes sense. Doesn't make a lot of sense for some things though (e.g. where the main app display is essentially a drawing canvas). Not sure how much better Electron could be in the scenario.
Not for at least 20 years. We've had Qt, GTK, WxWidgets for longer than that. Those GUI toolkits are how cross-platform developer "used to be done", and to a large extent still is.
Electron is not the only way to do cross-platform, and there are lots of reasons why it absolutely is not the best way. What it does have in its favor is leveraging the knowledge of developers who've only ever worked on webstacks. Not much else.