They're slowly boiling the frog if you look at Facebook, Reddit, etc.
Also, part of it is a very long game. Younger generations rarely use websites, they mostly use apps.
It's the same thing as Office and Windows being slowly moved away towards a subscription model: done successfully for Office, still trending that way slowly for Windows, where resistance is SUPER fierce.
Just because the loss is happening over decades, doesn't mean the web is winning.
I definitely felt this was happening at some point, but it seemed like it peaked. But, fair enough, maybe I just stopped paying attention.
You should be happy that Reddit just trashed all the apps, then. It would never have occurred to me to look for an app to use Reddit; nor did I ever hear discussion about it.
It seems that people tend to use the same few key applications now: Instagram/TikTok/whatever-flavor-of-the-year-social-media app, messaging, the YouTube app, a browser.
But you're right, in that you do still get hounded to install pointless apps to do a single thing. The other day I needed to download some soccer tickets that were being hosted by TicketMaster. After the TicketMaster-hosted site told me to download them to my wallet but offered no way to do so, the team wanted me to install their own app. Nope.
Another thing that pisses me off is when vendors will make it impossible to do something from A COMPUTER. NO, I am not going to install a goddamned app and dick around on a tiny phone screen when I'm running an event and executing transactions with customers standing in line, Square!
Also, part of it is a very long game. Younger generations rarely use websites, they mostly use apps.
It's the same thing as Office and Windows being slowly moved away towards a subscription model: done successfully for Office, still trending that way slowly for Windows, where resistance is SUPER fierce.
Just because the loss is happening over decades, doesn't mean the web is winning.