While I do occasionally miss it there as well, I think the main difference is that I very rarely use desktop applications for information gathering.
I never "read" a desktop application, whereas that is mostly what I use a browser for. And if I can't properly interact with text on a website, then I would likely reach for something else.
Back in ye olden days desktop applications for information gathering like Encarta let you select and copy text because they were thoughtfully designed and knew that "information you were gathering" should be different than "application chrome" - that's the distinction being made here.
Information-oriented desktop apps still do this - any good email client, for instance, should make it trivial to copy a subject line or "to"/"from" address even if it's in the UI chrome.
I never "read" a desktop application, whereas that is mostly what I use a browser for. And if I can't properly interact with text on a website, then I would likely reach for something else.