If I look at Pocket and some of their surprise telemetry decisions, I think it's a reasonable implication. They care more about the standards and "providing an alternative to X" than they do the end user.
Firefox on Android is an excellent browser. Firefox on iOS could be the same if Apple let go of its chokehold.
Mozilla certainly keeps the source of their funding in mind when making certain key decisions, in much the same way that elected officials do with respect to their donors. In fact, it's even more significant because Mozilla's funding primarily comes from a single source. And you can't just piss off your sole major benefactor without consequence.
The argument that they have the luxury to make independent decisions would be more plausible if their foundation were funded out of a legacy foundation or something like that.
One of the few things which holds me back of switching to an iPhone is a true version of Firefox
From my perspective, Apple's conservative attitude is a positive. There are all sorts of web techs that enable the possibility of increased tracking, of websites being generally malicious, of all sorts of things that I don't want.
Historically Apple has been on my side and I will continue to appreciate that until demonstrated otherwise.