Microsoft might just have the horsepower to keep up with any particularly shitty changes that Google might potentially try to push through, better than some of the other Chromium skins. At least if they want to.

Microsoft displays ads within their OS. They would join arms with Google if they honestly decided to tackle adblocking.

Why settle for some petty ad revenue when Google is handing you the opportunity to regain some browser marketshare in a silver plate ?

It's not like MS is dependent on ads as much as Google.

ads within the OS are conveniently exempt from browser adblockers.

Unless they backfill it... I can see Microsoft going all out with Edge Chromium and Brave also trying their best. Both have manpower to try overcome Google's decisions on Chromium with their forks.

Sure, but carrying patches against Chromium trunk is an ongoing cost. It's especially problematic if it means there are diverging extension APIs.

If this is the last decision Google ever makes that their downstreams disagree with, then sure it's probably manageable.

Apple manages just fine...

> If this is the last decision Google ever makes that their downstreams disagree with, then sure it's probably manageable.

And if it's not, then it justifies the cost of forking.