I've spent a little time wondering if it is acceptable to push emacs as a runtime lately. For example, I've convinced a few co-workers to use magit, and they're comfortable with it when using a shell wrapper to start emacs and call magit-status.
Honestly, I'm kinda convinced that if there was a more locked down "kiosk mode" that didn't let you use the other functionality it could be a good runtime for generic apps.
I'm more productive building a little tool in emacs than just in the shell, or something web, desktop or mobile based.
There's a few reasons, the amount of useful things instantly available (and discoverable) is incredible, being the main one.
If I specifically want to make something for others... Unless they're emacs users I'm going to use another platform, obviously.