I see it more like the browser group wanted it to be a ‘real’ browser and not held down by having to be compliant with the hobby OS. But that’s just my reading from the outside. :)

They mentioned being more open to OSS packages, which probably wouldn’t work on Serenity.

Don’t fret, I think a lot of us are on a long-term journey to de-Google. I’ve actually found that changing browsers is one of the easiest things to do, especially with the ability to import your bookmarks and such. With Firefox Sync, you pretty much have the same functionality as you would with your Google account signed into Chrome.