This probably isn't a popular view for the HN crowd but at this point I'm convinced that for 90% of users, browser extensions are an anti-feature doing way more harm than good.
For almost 100% of users, the "modern web" is an anti-feature doing way more harm than good. It's a giant pile of tracking scripts and animated "punch-the-monkey" graphics wasting users' power and bandwidth while stealing their personal data and providing nothing of value. Web browsers are creaking piles of bloat trying (badly) to support this disaster while pretending to be shinier than their competitors, or than last month's version of themselves.
Browser extensions offer a whole new host of evils, along with a marginally effective way to fight back against the rising tsunami of web horrors. The web is mostly about harming users, so I can hardly blame them for grasping at whatever chance they have to defend themselves.
Much like toolbars back in the day. I still think that browsers should just let extensions be fully disabled by default so only the power users who know what they are doing can enable them poking in settings.
Browser extensions offer a whole new host of evils, along with a marginally effective way to fight back against the rising tsunami of web horrors. The web is mostly about harming users, so I can hardly blame them for grasping at whatever chance they have to defend themselves.