> Not only is the browser a laughably complicated app runtime that isn't capable to do anything with local files (so you need "services" to store your eg. photos), it's also blatantly power-inefficient and a privacy catastrophe.

Yes, but there are no practical alternatives. No matter how inefficient it is, there is nothing to replace it. And the gatekeepers of the devices on which the browsers run won't let anything else replace it unless they are the ones controlling it.

> Where has the idea of personal computing shared by a whole generation gone?

I would say it was eaten by profit seeking corporations.