A lot of the comments here are missing two key points:

1. Google and Facebook have created really high-standards for what's considered a usable web application
2. HTML is still a language highly optimized for creating static documents, not building the reactive applications most devs want to build

I think experienced developers might even deliberately ignore how much of a moat these two facts create for big companies (because it serves their interest as well).

Think about it: if styling/designing/building a web app like Google Docs was easy, do you really think Google would be able to maintain its lead in every vertical in that market for so long? Sure, maybe for some use cases it's the best solution — but what about lawyers or doctors: they could certainly use a custom version of a real-time document-editing app.

But, by keeping web development hard (i.e. split into a million different technologies that have trouble connecting with each other), Google and Facebook have enough breathing room to be able to create THE real-time work platform and THE social network, without worrying too much about competition sneaking up behind them.

And, if some small startup does manage to get off the ground despite the incredible engineering effort required, Google can just copy or acquire them with some of the billions they've made from their technology moat — and voila, as an extra bonus — all the devs who work at that acquired startup are already trained in the specific framework that Google and Facebook uses (oh yeah... that's why they open sourced it in the first place...).

By creating this huge moat between what's a "good enough" real-time web application in the eyes of most users (who expect instant updates, smooth transitions, collaborative features, and interoperability by default) and what most developers can pull off in a few months, these big companies can ensure they stay on top and not too many competitors arise.

And why don't developers fight back against this? Because this moat benefits us as well. It artificially inflates our salaries by making web development a super complex field. Not only do you have to know a lot of technologies and all of their secrets settings, you also need to know how everything fits together behind the scenes.

Can you imagine if web development was as simple as learning a single language? We'd all be making far less money by tomorrow.

All these moving pieces and arcane knowledge gives us pride in knowing something other people done, while making it extra hard to be a new developer. It also protects our employers from being disrupted every 2 weeks, giving some economic stability to the tech market at large.

Another benefit it provides to those already in power is an easy way to control who the next breakthrough success: if you're running a startup that's competing (even tangentially) with Google or Facebook or the thousands of other entrenched players, you'll need a million dollars just to catch up to them in terms of creating a usable product. People aren't going to be impressed with your photo sharing app if its interface isn't as sleek as Facebook's or Instagram's.

What's the solution to all this? The no-code movement? Perhaps low code?

Nah — those are patches in a sinking ship. The fundamental fact is: the web wasn't made for building dynamic web applications (and web components aren't actually simplifying the process).

Think about this: your browser doesn't even know what a "user" is or how to connect to a database or what a SPA is. And how long have we been building these things over and over again? It's absurd there aren't standard APIs for all of it...

But that would destroy the moat.

I think the true solution is a next gen version of HTML that abstracts away and standardizes everything difficult about building a web app.

Devs need to be able to focus on just building awesome products that serve a need — not configuring Webpack and getting a 5 year degree in CSS before even getting started.

It's too bad Google owns the most popular web browser (that could actually make a difference in this fight) and Facebook has convinced every developer I know that they've solved web development. It'll be their self-created competitive advantage until all developers simultaneously go crazy from having to re-implement the same damn architecture again for the thousandth time.