What reasons are there to run downloaded code on the client computer instead of the server (and making the client thin)? The canonical example is JavaScript.
Custom UI. This is the most common reason.
Custom cryptography protocol.
Custom data compression (very broadly).
Distributed computing, for example ECM as a Java applet.
Peer-to-peer, where the "server" is not any more powerful than the client.
Offline capability.
The original motivation was hoping to see text-mode web browsers support JavaScript. I discovered eLinks does a little.
If we redesigned the web so that custom UIs were less necessary for people to access information, how much JavaScript would be necessary?
There has always existed the downloadable application. How is JavaScript better? Portable, sandboxed, easy for the user. These are flaws in the alternative software distribution infrastructure.
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