It does matter, because Firefox exists, and you’re free to choose that one too. If you know about the underlying tech your decision is more informed.
im not going to pretend im smart enough to understand the backend difference between safari/chrome/firefox - firefox mobile hasnt been a great experience for me, but i dont use the browser on my phone all that much. at home, its vivalidi because it works well. im not knocking firefox, its been my go to browser for over a decade - but its been seemingly backed by google this whole time? i dont know.
If you’re on iPhone there is no difference in the tech under the hood, because apple only allows webkit. Anything besides Safari is essentially Safari with a skin. The difference in tech is rarely the issue though. It’s the monopolistic practices of Google and apple that should concern us
Google paying Mozilla for search placement is the same as Google paying Samsung and Apple for search priority on their phones.
It doesn’t mean that Google is backing Mozilla, Apple, and Samsung.
Mozilla has to take a much smaller cut compared to Apple because of their size, nothing else.