Company I write code for has an in-house app that's used on tablets by employees on retail floors. It's a platform agnostic PWA. Getting the managers to actually create a home screen shortcut to use it full screen always requires someone to walk them through that. It's just surprising and not intuitive to most people that a page in a web browser can be made to act like a standalone app.

To be clear, it's not really critical. They can do their job perfectly well using the app in any browser. But having it full screen does improve the UX quite a bit.

I am also thinking that installing is exactly what people avoid when they prefer PWAs, so if installing is actually just creating a shortcut to home screen (and Windows equivalent), then maybe the verbiage should reflect that and we would see wider adoption.

On my RadioSide, when the user selects to add to home screen or install as an app, it makes an icon and that's that, from the user's point of view it looks like an app, works like an app, quacks like an app, without the risks and hassle.

Most users have no idea that it's possible thus presenting them with an "install this" they already get anxiety attacks of downloading and running stuff and taking risk, I am talking about average users.

As a (non-web) developer, I just don't trust PWAs: I assume they'll break their offline functionality in the most unfortunate moment while being not as tightly integrated into desktop as proper apps (even those using Electron). So I just keep using website as that has a more clear mental model.

Absolutely, I’ve yet to see something that works offline (I’m sure it’s technically feasible). But «so what» - few modern day apps do much use when offline.

In my whole life working in IT, I’ve seen two people use PWAs. And one was just trying it out to see if it was better than a website.