The problem is, I tnink, that most people actually prefer apps over websites - even just a wrapper - for whatever reason.

Possible reasons:

- No waiting for a page to load

- Home screen access (most don't know about bookmarking web apps)

- Discovery (where do you go to find PWAs?)

- Features (native apps have access to more platform APIs)

- Absence of browser chrome (more immersive UX), though on iOS the chrome can be removed from PWAs once bookmarked, using meta tags

Those are all pretty good. Some other reasons:

- well written apps use less memory, battery, and bandwidth

- security: apps go through at least some review while a web app could change with every reload

- scripting: apps often expose more functionality to Apple Shortcuts

- accessibility: the system accessibility features seem to work better with apps

- UI/UX: the best native apps are always going to be more responsive and feel better than the best web apps

In most of the cases, web apps are also much slower as well and the UX is also sub par.

Ad companies now. Just one sentence earlier you said it's people 'delivering their payload'.

Yes, ad (supported) companies are a large subset of the former. I am not sure what point you are attempting to make.

Ad supported apps are not necessarily from ad companies.

The point I'm trying to make that these ever-prevalent 'they just want' remarks are superficial, uninformed, overly broad, and vague, to the point of having no point.

There are many benefits to native apps over web apps on mobile devices, depending on the use case. A conspiracy against the people need not be part of every developer's choice to utilize the native platform and associated app store for distribution.

I know there's lots of horrible companies out there (hi Meta!) who will drive you to their native apps just for performance of ads and 'engagement'. This doesn't justify the conspiracy thinking getting applied to native apps as a whole.

Ad tech comes with a whole bundle of mal-incentives, like engagement hacking. If you are supported by ad revenue then your primary job is to get your users to look at ads. That's an ad company, for our purposes here.