When has it ever been a good idea to leave control about something to just one company? Have you somehow been abstinent from tech during the last couple decades? Do you not remember how hostile Microsoft acted towards Linux around 2000? Are you suggesting we would be better off now if Apple and Linux would have left the field to Microsoft back then? This situation now is no different.
Creating patches might work in the short run, but over time when according parts of the code base change and get refactored, you're constantly busy keeping your stuff compatible. Case in point safari: They severely lack behind in several areas. Why? According to your post it should have been trivial for them to just take any improvement from Google's fork and apply it to webkit. Didn't seem to have happened.
And counting on Microsoft, a company active in the ad business as well, doesn't sound too convincing in this context either.
Creating patches might work in the short run, but over time when according parts of the code base change and get refactored, you're constantly busy keeping your stuff compatible. Case in point safari: They severely lack behind in several areas. Why? According to your post it should have been trivial for them to just take any improvement from Google's fork and apply it to webkit. Didn't seem to have happened.
And counting on Microsoft, a company active in the ad business as well, doesn't sound too convincing in this context either.