> FF performance finally seems to be mostly on par with Chrome

It's always been faster for me, especially with a nontrivial number of tabs and on start-up.

> the extensions situation is as good or better.

Much better, especially for the things I care about, such as themes. I can't find out how to theme Chrome; if you don't like the default, you're apparently still stuck with it.

More to the point, Firefox respects me. I can turn off the speed dial feature in Firefox. I can't in Chrome. I can theme Firefox to a level unheard-of in Chrome. Firefox extensions seem to be able to dig deeper into Firefox than Chrome extensions can into Chrome.

It's about respect: Firefox allows me to shape it the way I want to, whereas Chrome constantly demands to shape me.