This is a quite an interesting architecture that could also be used for developing on the browser. I imagine some of the existing browser development tools use something similar
It's so common to open apps from the search bar (and the app drawer now, I imagine), that it probably becomes less of a burden. Might even make people use those other patterns more, who knows.
It's early days for Mainframe. I agree it's still finicky, and I'm working to change that. What made you feel that way about it?
Feel free to reply here or email me. You can reach me through andre [at] mainframe's domain.