NaCL? Mozilla won this one. Wasm is a continuation of asm.js.
Dart? It now compiles to Wasm but has mostly failed to replace js while Typescript filled the niche.
Sure, Google didn’t care much for XML. They had a proper replacement for communication and simple serialisation internally in protobuf which they never actually try to push for web use. Somehow json ended up becoming the standard.
I personally don’t give much credit to the theory of Google as a mastermind patiently under minding the open web for years via the standards.
Now if we talk about how they have been pushing Chrome through their other dominant products and how they have manipulated their own products to favour it, I will gladly agree that there is plenty to be said.
And yet the design of wasm is the way it is to a large extent because of V8 limitations and Google's pushback on having to do any substantial changes for the sake of a clean design.
1) Google doing whatever they want with matters that affect every single human on the planet.
2) Google running a farse with "public feedback" program where they don't actually listen, or in this case ask for feedback after the fact.
3) Google not being truthful or introspective about the reasons for such a change, especially when standardized alternatives have existed for years.
4) Honestly, so much of standard, interoperable "web tech" has been lost to Chrome's "web atrocities" and IE before that... you'd think we've learned the lesson to "never again" have a dominant browser engine in the hands of a "for profit" corp.