I think the initial idea of being the fast to hit all platforms was the idea, but this has meant a lack of skill in developers who don't know about each platform, so you end up with a mess of apps that attempt to (badly) replicate native elements like menus.
You are right about async/await. I am old! (But I still find the development of software in a large JS system unmanageable versus old C++ development approaches).
Web is chosen because it is the fastest way to hit all platforms, not because it's a skill issue.
> a mess of JS callbacks makes it difficult to see the initiator of anything
Async/await is available in most browsers since 2017, what year are you from?