> even consider alternatives, as if they are being paid to defend this pro-advertising position.

There's no way they would manage to exist like a business with a multi million dollar a year CEO without all that sweet Google money. So they are totally beholden to advertising straight from the top down. It doesn't even matter who is at the top, the whole step setup guarantees it'll be one of the big business players.

Basically when they moved Firefox from a foundation to a corporation, this was pretty much inevitable. They don't even want our petty donations anymore. We can donate to the foundation's pet side projects but not too Firefox.