I don't think writing a browser based, professional, CAD application is out of the question. Especially with WASM gaining support in modern browsers and WebGL2.
I think this was done a few years ago, but it still amazes me.
WebGL2 is a nice toy for writing blog posts, nothing more.
All my mobile devices have OpenGL ES 3.x running intensive native games without issues.
Yet for mobile browsers I have to specifically enable the WebGL 2 support.
No user without technical skills is ever going to deep dive in the browser flags to enable WebGL content on computers that don't have any issue playing 3D games.
For a company like Palantir, I would imagine most of their clients are running older browsers, possibly even IE <10 still.
I'm not familiar with their product, but a web app would certainly introduce more developer time spent on keeping cross-compatibility with older browsers while a Java/native app is practically WYSIWYG.
-- We achieve magnitudes higher visual scale via GPU client/cloud computing... while running in a browser
-- We intersect with some of Palantir's customers (though we're more fortune 2000 sec/fraud/etc.), and are deploying fine. WebGL is ~5 years old.
This may also be a good point to note.. The Graphistry team is ~doubling! If scaling visual analytics for cybersecurity, anti-fraud, etc., sounds worthwhile, please send your CV/LinkedIn/Github to build@graphistry.com !
I think this was done a few years ago, but it still amazes me.
http://www.meshlabjs.net/