Yet another reason to back out Ventura (if I hadn’t already). Meanwhile MacWorld touts “Web Apps” as a headline feature for Sonoma. As near as I can tell it is a glossier, but more steps, equivalent of clicking in the Safari URL field and simply dragging it into the user area of the Dock under Monterey. Oh, and I’m sure there will be NEW EMOJIS!
Clearly they could find better uses for their time.
I believe it’s slightly more sophisticated than that. For example, if the web apps get notifications, they show the notification badge on the dock icon of the web app rather than Safari, and show the notification from an icon representing the app rather than Safari. (No different for me, as I never let Safari or web apps notify me, but I’m sure some people do.)
The proper term is progressive web apps. Safari’s lukewarm support for it so far has been embarrassing, IMO, and this is a small step to catch up with what other browsers (both on desktop and mobile, though not on iOS) were capable of for a long time.
PWAs are integrated better with the OS than a browser page, and can act in a more standalone way, yet do not require the installation of a dedicated application. The Ultimate Guide to Progressive Web Applications gives a short introduction, although geared towards developers.