Let's not pretend Google Chrome is somehow less of a walled garden. You can only install extensions from their store, and yes, they've removed extensions for business reasons before.
Yes, redistributing extensions for Windows Chrome users (not Windows Chromium) does require the Chrome Web Store. This is unfortunate, but at least Google has a better track record when it comes to banning extensions that modify their things on their own web properties.
However, as you point out, Google prohibits side loading for the majority of real Chrome installs.
The time since I last found a malicious extension in the Chrome Web Store is five days[0]. They're terrible at policing this, which is a point I've actively complained about for years.
Interesting, which ones?
I tried searching for some examples of removed extensions, so far I've only found some awful stuff like this:
http://fortune.com/2016/06/03/google-chrome-jews/
It's an ad company that allows ad blockers, so it seems at most like a small chain-link fence garden.
I was going to say it's not a big deal but I quite distinctly remember it being the entire reason I switched to Vivaldi instead of Chrome. Full extension store compatibility with none of the nagging, and all the other cool shit it does is just a bonus at this point.
Only popular religions ;)
I agree. I pointed out that your statement "You can only install extensions from their store" is incorrect for Chrome. Thank you for adding information about Edge.