they actually did not... the original requirement said "a minimal, terminal-inspired email client" and "take inspiration from existing terminal email tools like aerc, mutt". This is nowhere near them, not even close.
Not sure why OP makes no mention of this in their blog post - perhaps they thought those parts were unimportant? In which case I am not surprised at the results.
"Email client can either be in the terminal (i.e. a TUI) or a web app"
yes? I am not sure how this contradicts to what I said?
You can absolutely have terminal-inspired web apps, see http://www.coboloncogs.org/
If Kagi was asking to impress them, then the OP understood perfectly because that is not what they said.
I agree on all points.
The project was well made, but my read on it was that they wanted to be shown something interesting. Even if it wasn't as well made of polished, I got the impression they would have preferred something "fun" or imaginative.
Imagine your Jira card at the job:
- Title: Make something fun for the customer.
Then your performance review:
- Manager: We cannot tell you why, but you failed at your job.
Anyways thanks for writing this up OP, it was an interesting read and I am a Kagi customer so I liked learning about them.