why the fact you can’t play variants on the app is so LAME

But you can play them on a browser app.

The dismissive response of “just do [missing feature] on your phone’s browser” completely misses the point of the app. The app exists so that you don’t have to use the website on your phone. If you need to use the website on your phone instead of the app, the app isn’t doing its job.

The main reason they don't add more of the variants to the phone apps is that so few people play the variants relative to the numbers that play regular chess. This morning there are 1,780 people playing the variants and 231,115 playing on the regular server.

They have to make decisions about where to focus development and variants just don't interest enough people.