Obsidian is just one example of how powerful local apps can be with a generic sync behind them (icloud sync, gdrive, obsidian sync, etc)

> This article looks a bit superficial to me.

Yes it is, I totally agree.

> The cloud has definitely advantages, like having the same data on all devices

That's not an advantage for the user at all, is it?

> and it provides some kind of backup.

You can backup user data in an offline-first app. Better even: you can let the user backup their data themselves!

> The mentioned downsides could be adressed by better software archticture or e2e encryption.

The article is superficial, but they mention at least one thing that cannot be addressed this way: what happens when you are offline or have a very slow connection?

It really boils down to one simple fact, IMHO: offline-first is harder to do. It is better for the users, but it is harder to do for the company doing it, which means it is more expensive. Companies are there for the profit, not to please the users.

The better software architecture is huge - if done right. It's the difference between cloud-only, local-only, and local-first. Not all apps are entirely easy as local-first, but you can often get 80-90% of what you need as that; and leave sync and collisions as rare situations to be handled manually.