[dictum]

Problem #1 can be fixed by making the Vimium blank page your newtab page.

Vimium comes with a blank .html file; IIRC it's what opens when you issue a command to open a new tab by pressing `t`.

I'm spending more time with FF 57 (it's really great for my needs) so I don't remember how you would set a URL for chrome//:newtab. I think you have to write an extension that redirects (with an inline script) to the Vimium blank page. I'm on mobile so I can't confirm that.

[vortico]

Unfortunately it seems that in WebExtensions, or at least Firefox and Chromium's current implementations of it, keybindings can only be captured by a plugin while a page is finished loading, and while the address bar is focused. There is also no way to do things like focus/defocus the addressbar, autohide the addressbar, autohide the tab bar, and many other small details that Qutebrowser effortlessly achieves.

[xwvvvvwx]

Obviously a hack, and only addresses one of your points, but the following works pretty well if you wanna focus / defocus the address bar in chrome with a shortcut:

https://superuser.com/questions/324266/google-chrome-mac-set...