Links with lots of data in them are really annoying to share. I see the value in storing some state there, but I don’t think there is room for much of it.
What makes them annoying to share? I bet it's more an issue with the UX of whatever app or website you're sharing the link in. Take that stackoverflow link in the comment you're replying to, for example: you can see the domain and most of the path, but HN elides link text after a certain length because it's superfluous.
My current hobby project is for DOS. Runs everywhere, mostly thanks to DOSBox, and the API has not changed since 1994 and will never change. For something to run offline and to avoid being stuck forever maintaining code I think this is what I will stick to for most of my future projects as well.
It's not like any modern OS, or popular libraries/frameworks could not provide an equally stable (subset of an) API for apps, but sadly they don't.
I actually think this is rather sensible. If I didn't have to learn DOS from scratch[1] to do it, I would be tempted to use it as a platform for many of my side projects. As you say, it will forever be a desirable platform to maintain (currently in the shape of DOSBox) thanks to the vast quantities of software – especially games – written for it.
[1]: I am young enough that when I last used DOS was before I had started programming, so I never learned it beyond command-line interaction.
Microsoft definitely wants to evolve, from my understanding they are looking at trying to lure people to package their apps, and to present similar hurdles as on macOS if your app is unsigned.
But due to old apps which nobody will update to package, I assume a lot of users will just disable all sort of warnings.
