It's called one-page app. You can control the browser tab history with HTML5/JS5 and create WebApps that offer all the same functionally you see in most native apps.
I think you misunderstand me. I didn't say it was technically impossible to create applications based on HTML/JavaScript that have similar functionality to installed apps.
What I said is that if you do that, you get the very same UX problems as well. You can implement back button functionality in either technology, but what it does needs to be reinterpreted for every single app because you have lost the page as a concrete unit of reference.
There may be other useful units of reference, but they are different ones in different apps regardless of technology.
