do they get funding from hardware vendors? snaps use a lot more resources

the blue thing on the bottom is actually the backdoor

For me it was Enlightenment DR16 (discontinued). you could make themes with shaped borders (transparent regions, buttons and titles anywhere, even overlapping into the window a bit), have it remember window positions, change border style for a window (e.g. drawer, so it can be collapsed sideways) and it would not steal focus. it had really good effects and features. I miss it a lot in Wayland. Check the web for some screenshots, if you want to be inspired.

they kinda drove ppl to 3rd party apps. i mean, if there was a tiktok app with less needs for permissions or less spyware, ppl would prefer that as well.