That would also mean you avoid any extension that would have been able to (ab)use webRequestBlocking, so removing it wouldn't have increased security.

Ad blocking is a must. In a world without MV3, you choose between ad infested sites or extensions with have the potential to harm your privacy. Now you don't. It's a win for normal users, at the expense of power users for whom declarative request blocking does not suffice.

There are plenty of other reasons to hate Google. This isn't one of them. Sacrificing the "power" desired by couple thousand HN users in return for the safety of couple millions of normal users is the right thing to do. Of course HN users will disagree; let's just see how badly this post will be downvoted. Downvotes won't change my opinion.