> The true history of Pocket suggests otherwise -- in 2015 Mozilla integrated Pocket, which was at that time a private company separate from Mozilla, into Firefox.
What in this true history you cite indicates otherwise?
Please elaborate on how some config settings are altering your browser experience.
I fear you're vastly overestimating the effects a few people had on Mozilla's decision to experiment with, then buy a company that could help them potentially gain some actual influence over content-makers and the ad industry, and hopefully reduce their utter reliance on Google's money.
At best, the only thing the criticism over Pocket accomplished was to hasten Mozilla's pre-existing desire to develop these kinds of features as (what became) Test Pilot extensions.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15421708
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15931730
The true history of Pocket suggests otherwise -- in 2015 Mozilla integrated Pocket, which was at that time a private company separate from Mozilla, into Firefox.
Further, when Mozilla first integrated it into Firefox, there was no way to remove it, only hide the icon:
> "This page http://help.getpocket.com/customer/portal/articles/1999137-h.... purports to tell you how to disable Pocket for Firefox, yet all it does is remove the button from the toolbar. Searching "pocket" in about:config reveals numerous preferences that can be edited, including browser.pocket.enabled which remains set to true after following Pocket's instructions."
Only after severe backlash [0] did Mozilla decide the best way to handle it was to purchase Pocket.
[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9667809