I'm confused, is the argument that it doesn't work because Google is fueled by surveillance capitalism? If so what about Apple which is only partly so? What about Firefox and in particular its de-branded ones without Google search as default?

I think what makes the Web special is precisely that there are different browsers beyond Chromium. If the Web was Chrome I would tend to agree but even though popular I do not think it is fair to conflate it to be the Web.