I think I might actually hate Discord more then both, so my hope is that this just makes them leave my communities alone somehow

You wouldn't run a website because a website doesn't have the capabilities of a desktop app. No one wants to run VS code from their browser. People don't even want to run outlook or teams from their browser. A desktop app results in far superior UX in most cases for tools that people need to use frequently.

Electron allows you to use existing webdev teams to build apps for basically every platform in existence, which is exactly why companies use it.

Alternative platforms exist but not every company has the right people to build on top of them and it's difficult to argue against the cost savings of using electron.

It's not really that complicated. Many of these apps simply wouldn't exist on Linux or Mac if it weren't for electron or similar frameworks. Companies might build a website (if it makes sense) and a Windows app and that's it, depending on the target audience

And yes, you might get vibe bloat in the framework code but that isn't an argument against electron, since literally any framework could be and probably is infected with AI bloat at this point.