Tbf - they don't pay for WebKit, they pay to be the default search engine. If Apple wanted, they could switch to Chromium and still have the same captive audience and bargaining power (but a lot less control of the direction web standards go)
That’s not necessarily true, even Microsoft has its own tweaks of Chromium:
> We’ve seen Edge adding some privacy enhancements to Chromium pioneered by Safari. Edge shipped those, but Chrome did not. And as more browsers start using Chromium and large companies will work on improving Chromium, more of these disagreements will happen. It will be interesting to see what happens.
Just because a browser is based on Chromium, that does not mean it is identical to Chrome and that Google is in control. Even if the unthinkable happens and Apple is forced to adopt Chromium, that will only ensure that Google is not the only one having a say about Chromium and the future of the web.
Fwiw, I agree its problematic to lock down phones the way Apple does. I won't use them because I'm not buying a device where I don't get to decide what runs on it.
And for sure they would put their twist on Chromium, like Edge or Brave or Vivaldi.
I still think they have a lot more control the way it is now, for better or worse
