Why is IMAP not well suited to mobile?
Some server support only basic IMAP and do not offer QResync and Condstore extensions. So to detect deleted move email you need to select entire email UIDs to see is it still there. A lo of unneeded network call just to fully synchronize client state.
I even do not want to start that some providers like Outlook don't offer UTF8 extension, so the cannot implement a good search for different languages.