I've used Electron apps where no such restrictions have been put in place; it has lead me to believe HTML/CSS/JavaScript is nowhere near the best "cross-platform" toolset. It's more accurate to say that it's the lowest common denominator. Electron desktop apps today look and act like Java apps from ten years ago.
I'd say that the onus is on web developers to prove that it is capable of creating cross-platform apps that are even as good as, say, Eclipse, before attempting to call themselves "the best".
> do some light word processing.
Due to how much latency affects typing and interaction with an editor, I absolutely do want a native desktop app - neither Atom nor VSC react quickly enough for my editing uses, and Google docs is aggravating to write more than a page or two in.
How much latency are we talking about here? I can't imagine how latency would affect typing..
> and interaction with an editor
Agreed, but again, how much latency are we talking about here? The projects I've used VSCode on have never had latency issues.