[Zak]

From Chrome's launch in 2008-2009 (depending on your OS) until Firefox's multi-process release in 2016, Chrome had a huge advantage: a bad page didn't crash or slow down your whole browser.

I switched during that time period and took my time switching back. Someone less interested in tech or less concerned with privacy issues probably wouldn't have been motivated to switch back at all. I can't comment on whether Google did use sabotage to win, but they didn't need to.