> Nowadays most PCs feel like a random terminal

It's a fun perception. For the longest time, all the "serious" computers were used through networks and terminals and didn't even come with any ability to connect a monitor or a keyboard (although a serial terminal would work as the system console). I used to joke (usually looking at Unisys Windows-based big servers), if the computer had VGA and PS/2 ports, it wasn't a computer, but a toy. Those Unisys servers weren't toys, but you could run Pinball and Minesweeper directly on them, which kind of said otherwise.

I think we got used to such levels of platform bloat that we don't care if the UI toolkit these days is bigger than the entire operating system that runs 95% of the world's payment transactions.