> Their model is very solid and seems a lot more sustainable than depending on Google as their overlord
Brave also depends on Google as their overlord, it's just that the contribution is made in code instead of dollars. There's no evidence Brave could survive if Google changed that deal, whereas Firefox has already spent years independent from them.
Lots of browsers use chromium, now including Microsoft. It’s all open source apart from Widevine, so the “deal” you must mean is Google paying for most of the engineers. With the new Microsoft Edge out, this deal is less of a risk for Brave or any small chromium-based Browser, but the risk was always low.
It is misleading to equate open source with paid search deals of the kind Mozilla has with Google. Brave has no such deal and is not likely to get one without leverage via market share or other scale advantages.
Brave also depends on Google as their overlord, it's just that the contribution is made in code instead of dollars. There's no evidence Brave could survive if Google changed that deal, whereas Firefox has already spent years independent from them.