surpassing chromium doesn’t mean crap if google still controls the direction of the web browser engine itself. see : APIs being added and needing to be removed by downstream forks (ex. Idle Detection API, WebUSB API, WebSerial API, WebBluetooth), or even Manifest v3 deprecation (most chrome extensions will migrate to Mv3 or die, they won’t bother catering to random downstream forks like Brave or Vivaldi that have to keep patching support for Mv3 back in if they want to maintain support. Edge has sad they’re on Google with this one.
if they are privacy focused it is a constant uphill battle since they have no control over their browser engine. that’s the benefit and power of Firefox, since they aren’t completely beholden to Google. yes, financially it’s still a problem since Google pays 'em but we’ve seen how they’re able to keep Manifest v2 and v3 support in. a chromium fork with resources less than 1/4th of Google Chrome developer team won’t have the manpower or commitment to keep supporting Mv2 when upstream Chrome/Chromium keeps going ahead without Mv2.