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I built an app like that. It uses a WebView, although all the HTML is self-contained and it only accesses the internet to make API calls.
Mobile app development really sucks, as a developer. The frameworks, the build tools, the specialised languages that can't be used anywhere else - it's a hot mess. Making an 'app' using that method is much quicker and easier for me because I get to use HTML, CSS and JavaScript, which I already know and have the tools for.
But why make it at all? If you want to use HTML, CSS and JavaScript you can do that, and not even have to build and deliver the pointless box that you put the content in, because everybody has Safari, Chrome, or another browser on their device.
Yes, I have built it as a website app also and that is the primary UI. The mobile app is just a read-only viewer for quick access to the information people need on the go. It's not entirely pointless.
A lot of people don't know how to install a PWA (which I also provide, if they want it) and have never done so. They also just expect there to be an app in the app store and when they hear about a tool someone else is using that's their first port of call.
This is definitely part of it. The company I work for sells a service to companies, that their employees need to use. We built a web app, it works perfectly fine. However, people ask for 'an app' because they want to install it from their phone's app store instead of opening the website once through a link in their email and creating a bookmark.
So we added a PWA manifest and clear instructions on how to 'install' our web app (it's literally the same thing otherwise, no added functionality). Yet the users still complain that they want an app...
I'm surprised users find the app store that compelling for a one-time "install" with updates not a factor. Do they cite any other reasons for wanting a different approach?
No, it's just "can't find it in the app store" and "want to have it on my home screen"...