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Plenty of people do this. Go onto any software listing site (eg. Softpedia or AlternativeTo), pick a not-a-brandname commercial product and chances are that it will be a single-person project. From things that are really well-polished and look like a team effort to pimped-up crappy weekend projects. Lots and lots are made and run by a single individual. Whether they sell well is an altogether different question, but…
desktop does not imply "not SaaS". I'll add that today most desktop apps are headless Chrome. that being said, I actually do web, but were I to go desktop I would look for a niche that can't be done in browser, even though today you already got access to most APIs & hardware...
> I would look for a niche that can't be done in browser What kind of niches would that be, beside audio/video and other cpu intensive things?
Edit: one example would be a file backup system. There's no way you want to make the user manually select and upload every single file on the HD for something like that, and (for obvious reasons) there's no way for a web app to scan the disk and read arbitrary files.
My perspective is Enterprise is hard to hit with SaaS. It's also hard to build an integrated (AD/Network/Data/Files) desktop solution. It still seems more viable to start with a standalone, offline, Desktop solution that individual enterprise employees might consider trying / e.g. something like an app that replaces excel with better efficiencies. Maybe while building some SaaS-like component (advanced processing in cloud, API integrations, etc) that still opens the door for non-enterprise users. Ultimately while building a portable/cots cloud based solution. Further letting you evaluate ways to pivot in either SaaS or COTs in the future.
Im still not confident that an MVP approach shouldn't just always accommodate seemless accessibility (SaaS) for a larger general market, and that I shouldn't discount enterprise requirements for non-corporate LAN user bases.
Was using Java Swing until very recently. Switched to Kotlin JS in browser, not sure it can count as desktop anymore.
Related question. How to start to develop desktop applications? In contrast to web applications there are not many resources out there and most seem outdated.
A large fraction of computer games are mostly still "desktop apps". Lots of single person indie success stories there, such as "Papers please" or "Stardew valley". Seminal example in this genre is probably Minecraft (which of course expanded to a team before acquisition).
I don't know how much longer this will last given stadia and xcloud. I've been playing on them and if they improve over 5 years' time, I could really see them becoming the standard.