Dave
Hmm it has been a while but iirc the “session variables” were missing when the script directly called the app. So stuff like no gtk/qt theme was set, the X environment info was missing so the app would error out and not start (geany specifically had this a lot iirc), permissions were incorrect when the called apps were handling user configs.
If it works fine now there is no need for it anymore. At the time there were bugs that I cannot recall at the moment. However even calling apps from a (root) terminal would also error out, have the wrong theme set, have incorrect / set incorrect permissions, etc. I did read on the mx forums about this being fixed?!?
Computers are like air conditioners. They work fine until you start opening Windows. ~Author Unknown