Unfortunately this is the future. Handing the world wide webs future to Google was a mistake, and the only remedy is likely to come from an (unlikely) antitrust breakup or divestment.
Nobody handed anything to anyone. They go with the flow. The flow is driven by people who use their products. The browser is how Google delivers their products so it’s kinda difficult to blame them for trying to push the envelope but there are alternatives to Chrome.
The ancient history of just 10-15 years ago shows Google aggressively marketing Chrome across all of its not inconsiderable properties like search and Youtube, and sabotaging other browsers while they were at it: https://archive.is/2019.04.15-165942/https://twitter.com/joh...
Indeed. There was time I myself used it as my primary browser and recommended it to everyone around. That changed when they started insisting on signing into the account to „make the most out of it” so I went back to Firefox. Since then I stopped caring. I know, virtue signalling. My point is: nobody handed anything over to Google. At the time alternatives sucked so they won the market. But today we have great alternatives.