Well, you paid (one way or another) to license Windows, which allows you to use applications on it including web browsers.
They are deliberately interfering with your choice of using someone else's web browser, and they are doing so for reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with the functional considerations of their product.
In a normal world this would attract legal scrutiny given their history (and in the EU, does).
The Google behaviour you're talking about is using a typically free service as a marketing channel. That is to me not quite in the same category.
If there was evidence that Google was arbitrarily hobbling non-Chrome browsers when using Google's online products (and I am in no way saying there isn't!!) then _that_ would be comparable, I think?
They are deliberately interfering with your choice of using someone else's web browser, and they are doing so for reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with the functional considerations of their product.
In a normal world this would attract legal scrutiny given their history (and in the EU, does).
The Google behaviour you're talking about is using a typically free service as a marketing channel. That is to me not quite in the same category.
If there was evidence that Google was arbitrarily hobbling non-Chrome browsers when using Google's online products (and I am in no way saying there isn't!!) then _that_ would be comparable, I think?