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I'd imagine the user benefit is they can tap new operating system APIs and features almost immediately versus having to wait for a React Native package or having to build a React Native bridge. I think everyone would agree that native apps are better in every way, but the thing is, as a small company, you can't justify hiring two different developers - hence why RN is usually a good choice to get off the ground with.

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Right, but they could get their AIs to quickly add new features to React Native! It makes no sense.

even in AI terms, the tradeoff is interesting. going native removes the party in the middle, which would be react native here. Sure you can extend core components, but that is notoriously more convoluted than just implementing the feature straight up within the native ecosystem, since it is usually accompanied by official documentation and examples which you can point your LLM towards. Sure you can tweak around things enough with workarounds and hacks (until react native properly supports thing xyz), but at this point the question is why bother with that in the first place. Also keep in mind, you'd have to maintain this own implementation on top of the already existing codebase

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