Like an addict, Mozilla became dependent upon the revenue they earned from their Google and Yahoo search deals. Search compliance requirements then prevented them from innovating in the areas you mentioned (and others). Mozilla had an opportunity to reduce the search dependency and transition to a subscription business around 2014-2015 when the paid consumer VPN market started to scale, but based on the internal incentives present at the time, they found the search money too lucrative to resist.
While this seems largely factual, it's certainly not a generous interpretation.
I view Mozilla as a privacy leader in a very small market dominated by giants. Microsoft gets users for free thanks to Windows, Apple does the same twice as well thanks to iOS, Mac and the browser not being complete cancer. Chrome has Google and YouTube to drive its users, not to mention first mover advantage in the industry. What does Mozilla have to drive Firefox users? Nothing, it's not a tech giant.
The shear fact alone that they exist and can swing with the big boys is an unbelievable accomplishment in my book, certainly worthy of praise and a more nuanced interpretation of events. Privacy is their only angle as it's all that's left to them to compete. They're getting better and better and marketing this fact but that's also because the general population is getting more educated to the value of their data thanks to Snowdon and The Zuck.
To assert with confidence that they should have started charging users a subscription fee 6 years ago is ludicrous, you can't know that would have worked out. It still may not.
Additionally the VPN boom we've seen - and Mozilla is only now capitalizing on - is largely a symbiotic evolution which coincides with the rise of the streaming giants. e.g. The only reason my parents know what a VPN is, is because they want access to Netflix's US catalog which is far superior and geofenced.
They didn't originally yet knew it was happening, happily taking money from foreign users until the studios and content copyright holders started demanding a geofence as they secure different distribution networks in other countries..
The whole entertainment industry is a giant mess and was never prepared for instant, across the world access to content. Tom Scott just did a brilliant video about how copyright laws have lagged far behind the tech that distributes it, it's worth a watch if this stuff interests you.
