because barely anybody is making desktop mail/calendar/contacts clients anymore. There is very little development in that market as most people have moved to web interfaces
There really isn't even if you don't need all the bells and whistles. I want my email client to be as simple and minimal as possible and Thunderbird seemed like the last candidate for this. Surprisingly it's the only one I could theme and strip down enough to meet my need.
If you use multiple email accounts on different platforms (private providers), client is only way how to manage it effectively. Same for calendars and contacts. You probably wont use web browser for edit contact on phone as well.