re #1: I think it's a technical problem too. I'm technically competent and enjoy programming, but I'd still like it if sometimes I could ask questions and get answers with less or no code. BI platforms are a pain in the ass for many reasons, but they often make it very easy to ask simple questions and organize the data in simple ways. A document that could do similar things without all the scaffolding would be cool.

#2-- Or just use the browser. It's capable enough, even if large datasets are somewhat problematic. The hard thing is the UI and identifying what the correct subset of functionality to surface is.