... or they could just create a PWA and publish it on the free and open web and have the app be available globally in 40s w/o any regulations or artificial restrictions.
(Disclosure: I work for Google, speaking only for myself)
By which you mean, pissing off power users?
Or as Google puts it in equally bullshit terms:
> They allow your users to opt-in to timely updates and allow you to effectively re-engage users with customized content.
But I'm far from an expert. What would be the benefit of a non-pw app?
* They're way faster and less janky.
* You don't to use endless workarounds to disable typical web behaviour when you don't want it.
PWAs are probably suitable for basic apps that just display information, e.g. an app for an event, or a pub or whatever. You would be insane to try and make a "real" app like Snapchat or Google Maps as a PWA though.
That said, I don't think PWAs have a good way to get background data updates, which is unfortunate for apps that could work offline. You can't do a silent push to update data, last I checked, anyway. (Use case: I want a weather app that has current/recent data without loading when I start the app, because I often start the app in dead zones; also I want to have it background fetch the data when my location changes).
It was also slower to write for me, but I've never had a good time understanding UI toolkits, so I assume that's my own character flaw.
A similar HTML layout shows up a ton faster in Chrome or a webview.
Which countries partake in this supposed free and open web? None.
There are dozens of separately regulated prominent webs now and that's going to get a lot worse this decade. We're never going back, nations are not going to give up the control they're assuming, it will splinter further and further; complexity will grow, accessing foreign markets will become more onerous. It'll gradually fully mirror the physical world, where if you want to travel to another nation, or do business in another nation (access their market), you will have to comply with all of their myriad of local regulations (which will continue to grow rapidly in number and complexity).
Nations will fence off their citizens online, and you will have to comply to access them. We're already seeing this directional shift in many nations, it will spread comprehensively.
Turkey's web is not regulated the same as India's web which is not regulated the same as China's web which is not regulated the same as the EU's web which is not regulated the same as Brazil's web which is not regulated the same as Australia's web which is not regulated the same as the US web which is not regulated the same as Britain's web and so on.