To be clear, I’m not complaining that we don’t have these aforementioned applications on the Linux desktop. That’s not the point. The point is “we” still don’t have a robust way for developers to monetise their application development work.
Most desktop Linux users run Ubuntu. Followed by others you’ve likely heard of like Arch, Fedora, Manjaro, SUSE and friends. Most users of these desktop Linux distributions have no baked-in way to buy software.
Similarly developers have no built-in route to market their wares to Linux desktop users. Having a capability to easily charge users to access software is a compelling argument to develop and market applications.
For sure, I can (and do) throw money at a patreon, paypal, ko-fi or buy a developer some coffee, beer or something from their Amazon wishlist. But I can’t just click “Buy” and “Install” on an app in a store on my Linux laptop.
Maybe one day all the ducks will be in a row, and I’ll be able to buy applications published for Linux, directly on my desktop. Until then, I’ll just keep looking longingly at those macOS app developers, and hoping.
Games are the only software I purchase these days
The Steam store does have a section for non-game software. It’s not very heavily-populated, but it’s there.
https://store.steampowered.com/search/?category1=994&supportedlang=english&ndl=1
If I exclude non-Linux-native stuff (which will still generally run via Proton):
https://store.steampowered.com/search/?category1=994&os=linux&supportedlang=english&ndl=1
And because it has a standard set of libraries, it’s probably the closest thing to a stable, cross-Linux-distro binary target out there, which I suspect most closed-source software would just as soon have.
You run your open-source stuff on the host distro, and run the Steam stuff targeting the Steam libraries.