Does anyone know why there's no desire to see a working standard (protocol) for calendar/tasks?
It's clear that CalDAV doesn't function consistently across devices (and does seem to be dying as a standard). If you work across different devices/OS it's virtually impossible to get things set up seamlessly. Companies and developers of task apps seem happy to create silos and not look at interoperability.
If you want to self-host, it's too hard to do this and you really are limited to a tiny number of options.
I have to join the choir, what do you mean dying and doesn't work? If proprietary apps don't support it, it's just because it's one of the best ways to lock people in.