This isn't an "abuse". These are the Internet root DNS servers. We don't design applications to tiptoe around them any more than we tiptoe around the capacity of core routers. These is a huge amount of capacity and all of root DNS together is a rounding error on total Internet traffic.

Chromium is imposing the extra load on the system, so yes it is the abuser in that sense. That they are doing it for what is a good reason for the app's users is immaterial to whether the effect is bad for the root DNS servers.

If Karen takes my sandwich from the company fridge, so I take some of Jon's lunch, so I don't starve, I'm not innocent because Karen started it, I've created a situation where there are two arseholes instead of one. This isn't quite what is happening here as the root servers are effectively a public resource and stuff in the fridge is all private resources, but close enough to make the point.

> The networks that hijack DNS request should share some of the blame

They should have all the blame for deliberately breaking part of agreed protocols for their own gain.

But that doesn't make anything we do in response to that right by virtue of us doing it because we have been wronged.

They should, but Google's "solution" to the hijacking is the problem here. If you're going to hijack NXDOMAINs, you can just ignore requests to non-existent TLDs in your scheme and Chrome will be none the wiser.

Google manages entire TLDs, surely they can use their own DNS servers for this purpose.