The short of it is that nobody has cracked the free cross-OS problem in the same way as electron has. Lazarus requires pascal and is unattractive. JavaFX, afaik, still requires a jvm download to use, and the documentation is minimal. QT is expensive for anything that isn't OSS, and the tools are minimal if you are on the free plan. Most of the rest require C++ and most don't have a great default visual design.
Electron has great documentation and we have a great variety of ready-to-use js widgets.
I really don't like this pattern either, but every time I've gone to trying to build a desktop app I get stuck in the mud. (I used JavaFX last time and got far enough to be usable, but I'd go to Electron if I wanted to have something to distribute.)
I just find the idea of building a local application using Web tools very... counterintuitive. Just such a waste of resources. Isn't Electron one of the heavier frameworks? Think of all the resources used on your local machine just for one application and one user.
If you plan on sharing this data with other users, then sure, it makes perfect sense, you can't share stuff from desktop app (without standing up API or smth). But if it's some personal stuff, like finances, personal notes, etc etc why move it out to the open?
I tried Mint awhile ago and it offered seamless integration with most of the financial institutions I deal with. Like I can get all my CC transactions data, checking accounts, savings accounts, 401K and (almost) everything else. Wonderful. I just need to provide all credentials to Mint so that it can authenticate with these institutions.
My cell phone provider has been hacked 3 times in the last 5 years, with at least one time stuff like SSN numbers and physical addresses got taken. If anything remotely similar to that happens at the SaaS that has my credentials, that's not just my credit card and bad loans, that's my life savings that can disappear. That's just... a non-starter for me.
But I'm old and I guess younger folks don't care that much about life savings. To each their own :)
Electron has great documentation and we have a great variety of ready-to-use js widgets.
I really don't like this pattern either, but every time I've gone to trying to build a desktop app I get stuck in the mud. (I used JavaFX last time and got far enough to be usable, but I'd go to Electron if I wanted to have something to distribute.)