It's not the same as on desktop, especially for iPadOS and iOS, which doesn't have extensions and does not have an equivalent for Brave Shields (as far as I can tell).

I'm not running into issues with performance, I am running into issues with functionality.

I have used Gnome Web, but it's got too many rough edges to use regularly. But I haven't used Vivaldi and I haven't heard of Nyxt! I'll give these a look, I appreciate it.

how can you be both an insufferable Linux nerd and someone who uses Apple products?

These aren't irreconcilable. Suffice to say I'm an extra annoying person.

you should be able to just install uBlock Origin or a system-wide ad blocker like AdGuard.

Brave on mobile has per-site JavaScript controls that are quick and easy to access within the browser. I don't know of anything nearly as good.

Yes, but "doesn't cover edge cases" isn't a good thing for Firefox.

I hate Brendan Eich, I hate the constant annoyances of Brave adding cards and sponsored backgrounds, I hate the dominance of Chromium, and I hate cryptocurrency.

But this is a fight I've lost.

I'm one of those insufferable Linux nerds who has spent $50+hours/month setting up a Nextcloud VPS, calling my friends Nazi-adjacent for using Twitter, etc. I'm horribly opinionated about software. I WANT everyone to use Firefox.

But I just don't have the spare time for Firefox anymore.

I've had irreconcilable, breaking issues with vanilla Firefox installs on almost every major desktop and mobile OS (excluding KaiOS and Apple WatchOS) every time I tried to switch to it during the past few years. This is not exaggeration.

From crashing because it can't handle keyboard-arrow down on iPadOS, lacking good built-in adblock controls (like Brave Shields) on Android and iOS, to being unable to load hCaptcha on desktop even after hours of user.js flitching. This is on top of the inconvenience of not having a good alternative to Chromium's Profile UI, the inconvenience of needing to test on Chrome when doing webdev, etc.

Brave is a putrid steaming pile of shit, but it's the best choice I've found. This post exaggerates a lot of the very real issues Brave has. This isn't praise for Brave, but rather an indictment on the state of browsing and personal-computing.

I write here very sparingly. With this comment, I hope someone will tell me I'm an idiot who's missing a wonderful browser out there.