Re: [w3c/manifest] The new definition of "installable web application" is inconsistent with the normative text of the specification (Issue #1168)

benfrancis left a comment (w3c/manifest#1168)

Bumping this issue because the phrase "any website is an installable web application" is now being quoted from this specification in a [Draft TAG Finding](https://w3ctag.github.io/install-finding/).

I still think this statement is flawed because:
- It contradicts other text in the Manifest specification, which defines an "installed" web application to be one where a web application manifest's members have been applied to a top-level traversable.
- The assertion that any website is an installable web application therefore depends on the implicit assumption of a "default" manifest, which is not actually defined anywhere.
- The algorithm for [processing a manifest](https://www.w3.org/TR/appmanifest/#processing) also requires a manifest URL as an input, and therefore a manifest can not be applied without one.
- Updating a manifest also requires a manifest URL, so installed web apps can not be updated without a manifest link relation.

Fundamentally if an "installed" web application is one where a manifest has been applied, then a web application can not be "installable" without a manifest. I think this point is further reinforced by the recent decision to add a `display-mode: application` media query in CSS, which only matches if a manifest has been applied.

In order to resolve these inconsistencies I think one of two changes needs to happen:
1. The definition of an installable web apps needs to be [changed](https://github.com/w3c/manifest/pull/1164) to say that a website is only an installable web app if it links to a web app manifest
2. A default manifest needs to be defined which somehow derives a minimum set of application metadata from a web page where no manifest is linked (e.g. using [meta name="application-name"] and [link rel=icon] where present, but what if they are not?)

My strong preference would be the former because I think saying that any website is an installable web application implies that all websites are web applications, which I think risks further diluting the perceived value of web apps compared with "native" apps.

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