First of all, I absolutely agree it shouldn't have been allowed to happen in the first place, but it did. And I absolutely think there should be meaningful repercussions for Google.
And really, I don't care if Microsoft and Apple stop getting paid for google search. My concern is Mozilla and Firefox. The google search money was Mozillas main source or revenue. They have been trying for years to find another way to make money, but have generally been unsuccessful, I'm doubtful they'll be able to figure out a way to replace that income now. What if this leads to Mozilla going out of business, Firefox being abandoned, and there being less competition? As a Firefox user, I might be biased but that seems like a worse outcome to me.
Perhaps Mozilla will spend money more effectively now? I'm not sure and frankly I don't care. For sure, it will be a sad day if Firefox formally goes under[1]. Still, it wouldn't change the validity of the decision to forbid these payments, spin off Chrome, etc.
[1] I think Firefox will survive. Orion browser, which has been my main browser for maybe a year now, was developed with far less money than the Firefox budget and something like only two people. Is this a fair comparison? I have no idea.
Is this a serious question? Orion uses WebKit which practically speaking is like 80% of what people know as "a browser" and where an insane amount of the effort and money goes. There are like 30 various WebKit-derived zero-features 1-man browsers out there on GitHub, they even show up here sometimes. Firefox maintains its own entire engine called Gecko, it's completely incomparable. The actual development cost of your browser is subsidized almost entirely by Apple (and Kagi's VC money), make no mistake about it.
And really, I don't care if Microsoft and Apple stop getting paid for google search. My concern is Mozilla and Firefox. The google search money was Mozillas main source or revenue. They have been trying for years to find another way to make money, but have generally been unsuccessful, I'm doubtful they'll be able to figure out a way to replace that income now. What if this leads to Mozilla going out of business, Firefox being abandoned, and there being less competition? As a Firefox user, I might be biased but that seems like a worse outcome to me.