Considering how poorly macOS runs Firefox, I'm actually quite glad that Webkit is enforced.
Let me be clear: I like Firefox. I've committed patches to Firefox on iOS. I'd use Firefox on any other platform, but it is not a good citizen of macOS. I don't believe it'd be good on iOS given the room to use its own rendering engine.
I don’t think any third-party browser can hope to compete with Safari on macOS, though. I don’t know how level the playing field is there.
The bug in question: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1429522
A blog post breakdown: https://mozillagfx.wordpress.com/2019/10/22/dramatically-red...
This does make a difference, but macOS is in many respects a "death by a thousand cuts" platform due to the UI/UX bar being fairly high. It notably clips in many areas where Chrome and Safari simply don't, which leads to a jarring experience. Scrolling and resizing is still not smooth, even after tweaking it behind the scenes - although to be fair, the post above calls out that they're aware they can make this smoother with CA.
Firefox on macOS also still has issues with hardware acceleration. Comparing the following URL across browsers I can achieve 60fps, no drops, on Safari. Firefox on my Mac averages 45fps.
https://webglsamples.org/aquarium/aquarium.html
I love Firefox (and the associated lineage) - I really do. I've kept it installed since the Mozilla Suite days. I still check every damn release to see if I could switch back. I'm sad every time I find I can't.
Chrome is slower and sends more telemetry to Google.
Firefox is more trustworthy, but also slower.
I accept that there better options for many people than Apple Mail.
iOS is behind android in terms of features, the top comment on the ios14 post points out that ‘it’s all just catchup to Android’.
Clearly Apple isn’t trying to kneecap iOS as an alternative to Android, so why would be conclude that they are doing this with Safari?
Their strategy has never been about rushing.
Marketing a device as private or secure gets customers who don't verify the claims. Marketing a device like a luxury fashion item gets customers. Marketing a device as having a browser that supports PWAs does not. Once it has the buyers, it's better for Apple's bottom line to milk them by blocking out competition for the App Store.
Recently switched to FF on a 6 year old mac, only complaints so far are small ui quirks
https://mozillagfx.wordpress.com/2019/10/22/dramatically-red...
Given that Webkit is available either way, why? If you prefer Webkit you can use Safari independent of whether actual Firefox is available or not. Having the choice doesn't force you to choose it.
But it gives other people with different priorities an option. And then more people use Firefox, and it gets better, and Mozilla ends up with more support and resources to address your concerns even before you actually start using it.
Furthermore, while this is a point to be debated... the thread here is not about Firefox on macOS, but on whether it'd run fine on iOS.
Given the performance of Firefox on Macbooks in general, I maintain my position that it would not fare well. The iMac has little to do with this. Given that they'll eventually need to have this running well on Apple Silicon, though, I'd be happy to eventually be wrong.
However, in terms of iOS, I am not certain how either of our experiences (both on macOS) would really be relevant at all to how Firefox would perform on iOS. As much as Apple has tried to make them similar lately, they are still different worlds.