We can all agree on some things though. I'm talking about core metrics. Performance, stability, safety. Beyond that there are some more "controversial" things like privacy, and then you have purely subjective things like UX.
When I say "build a better browser" I mean that they should take those core capabilities and invest heavily in them. Instead, one of their most promising projects, Servo, was canned "because covid" while their CEO took their largest 8 figure payment ever.
It's a performant, stable, safe, and private browser.
(It lags Chrome in some potted performance tests, but it is more than adequately performant. Firefox is much better than Chrome at memory management. It never crashes. It does not steal your data. It allows you the greatest degree of privacy in any major browser. Side tabs are possible.)
But no one can compete with Google's marketing, or Apple's iOS advantage. Not even Microsoft. Certainly not Mozilla.
Mozilla has failed us in so so many ways. You mention one egregious example.
But we've failed Mozilla too. Anyone who recommends Chrome over Firefox is making a mistake detrimental to the well-being of the internet.
Not that Chrome is a bad browser. It's great. Almost as good as Firefox! Chrome has terrible tab management and chews RAM, but it's performant and secure and lovely.
But Chrome is a bad path forward for the internet, and this is important.
I use a lot of SaaS admin panels, of widely varying quality. In every case I can think of, the same bugs are present in Firefox, Chrome, and Safari.
They can start by stopping to bleed the Firefox team dry (they use the income they get from Firefox to fund everything else, none of which is important).
If they promise to focus on Firefox again, and with that money they can probably hire a bunch of world class programmers. At least I think the combo of a real mission and decent pay should go a long way.
And, if they somehow get rid of their current management and apologize profoundly I and others will probably start donating again. It will also result in more users and more business in every way.
Today it seems they are paid to make the web a Chrome monoculture only with plausible deniability.