I've been a long-time fan of Chrome(ium) Web Apps - those that you create by going to Tools -> More Tools -> Create shortcut and tick "Open as a window" checkbox. I find it extremely handy to have Gmail, Calendar, Slack, etc. as "separate applications" from a Desktop Env perspective so that I can add them as favorite to launcher (e.g. latter dock) and use Meta-<number> to pop them up without them getting lost in the myriad other my other browser tabs & windows.

The problem is that on Wayland neither GNOME nor KDE recognize them as separate windows anymore - i.e. my gmail "app" is treated just as another chrome window for that matter, so I can't bind a dedicate shortcut for it.

Are there any workarounds / solutions / PRs to this? My google-fu didn't find anything on the subject. Firefox deprecated half-born SSB feature last year so Chromiums family is the last browser standing.

I tried to search for alternatives and happy to learn an new workflow if anyone has one to suggest. My preference is that both web apps and and regular browser windows will be running in one browser instance to save resources, i.e. no Electron please (the latter use separate resources per app, doesn't have my default extensions like adblock and pixelblock, etc.)

Happy to consider any fancy browser tab/window manager that can keep my gmail/slack/etc. in separate&dedicated windows and bind a shortcut to switch into them.

P.S. Last tested this on Plasma 5.23.1 on Nixos unstable.

Much looking forward for your experience on the subject.

The situation is still the same as of KDE 5.25.x unfortunately.

You could you try the webapp-manager. It's that mint application to create ssb's from the browsers that are installed on your system. A continuation of the peppermint Ice app.
https://imgur.com/a/nd6UyOE. It's not good practice to create app shortcuts straight from chrome anyway.
It detects any browser that is installed.And you can do it with or without toolbar ( this one's css though, but you get the point)https://imgur.com/a/J4NaWM5
And it works very well in tiling mode.https://imgur.com/a/rel8Oek

As a sidenote. There's an extension called "open as popup" for chromiums https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/open-as-popup/ncppfjladdkdaemaghochfikpmghbcpc?hl=nl. Something similar exists as addon for firefox ( believe it's theatre mode if I recall correctly). Anywho, webapp view on the fly so to speak. I created a desktop "go-back" on my panel since I hate keyboard stuff ( I'm lazy that way) if I want to go back a page. Besides, it's handy if you have a bunch of apps that don't have a toolbar or use "alt+left" to go back a page. https://imgur.com/a/yDNlzYA