WASM has it's uses, for games and such. But on the web, the more weird stuff you do, the more friction you tend to introduce to your users. You can boot a JavaScript app, but the startup time will push people away. You can take months to replicate iOS animations, but the lack of bookmarkability will hamper your virality. Now you can compile C++ and run it in the browser, but you can't use any of the existing web frameworks, and browser support is hit or miss.<p>The real questions are: what are you <i>really</i> doing that actually couldn't be done with Craigslist-level technology? Does your application need to look and feel the way it does because you want show off what you are capable of, or because your customers would actually like you less if you did less?<p>What people keep missing is that the Web isn't a platform, it's an idea: It's the idea that the lowest common denominator, or whatever crappy text-based document format is supported in every single device ever made, is actually good enough for almost everything. And you can add fanciness, and you can add features, but the weight of the web pulls all content towards that lowest common denominator.<p>This drives iOS developers crazy, because they want to be special snowflakes who make animations that run at 100hz and might make Dieter Rams notice them in the lunchroom.
Platform after platform keeps challenging the web, and the web keeps chugging along. Because the web is not a tool, it's the idea that we should communicate with as many people as we can, and to do that we should use the simplest technology that will do the job.