At the end of the day their very existence has enabled Google to argue 'We're not an abusive monopoly. See? We fund this very outspoken open web technology company'.
I'm pointing out the hypocrisy of claiming independence when they are fully dependent on tech giants. The end result is a delay in the courts using already existing antitrust law to address the problem.
Their whole point is that it's not a fair playing field, so independent companies don't stand a chance. Therefore even decently sized companies like Mozilla have to suck on the teat of the Big Tech behemoths.
Mozilla may be getting played. Yet they don't only take money from Google for defaults. And at times they've used other defaults in the US too, like Yahoo.
There is still value there, and the good need not be enemy of the perfect.
I'm pointing out the hypocrisy of claiming independence when they are fully dependent on tech giants. The end result is a delay in the courts using already existing antitrust law to address the problem.