My memories of non-web toolkits are not as fond as yours.
You mention Swing, but I remember lots of my non-programmer friends dreading having to use applications made with Java, since they were considered sluggish and resource-intensive. They also had a certain look and feel to them that made them stick like a sore thumb compared to other apps, and a lot of people knew by looking when an app was made with Java.
Java was actually pretty fast even back in the early 2000s, but thanks to Swing et al (and to the JDK requirement), Java desktop apps had a reputation was much worse than Electron or JS-heavy websites have today. Especially among non-programmers.
Strangely, OTOH, Visual Basic had a terrible reputation among programmers, but most Windows users had no idea about it since it used native widgets.
Back then, looking native was the most important thing. Today it seems electron apps can get away with looking anything but native - so perhaps it’s time to resurrect some other desktop frameworks (I just recently started working with JavaFX and I really like it so far. Unfortunate that it is so niche)
I think the issue with Swing was that is was in a bit of an uncanny valley. If all controls were custom it wouldn't look strange.
Visual Basic was very... well, "basic", so it looked normal. Some tools like CCleaner and a lot of Antiviruses had fully custom looks, but didn't look out of place, because they were too different.
You mention Swing, but I remember lots of my non-programmer friends dreading having to use applications made with Java, since they were considered sluggish and resource-intensive. They also had a certain look and feel to them that made them stick like a sore thumb compared to other apps, and a lot of people knew by looking when an app was made with Java.
Java was actually pretty fast even back in the early 2000s, but thanks to Swing et al (and to the JDK requirement), Java desktop apps had a reputation was much worse than Electron or JS-heavy websites have today. Especially among non-programmers.
Strangely, OTOH, Visual Basic had a terrible reputation among programmers, but most Windows users had no idea about it since it used native widgets.