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It could be argued that integrating basic developer tools is also a statement about the kind of internet we ought to have: One where people are as empowered to understand and contribute as they are to consume.

I've seen not-terribly technical people— or at least people who'd never otherwise have firebug installed— go and edit braindamaged forms to get a webpage working right. Having it built in is practically empowering.

While I agree with the sentiment, I think bundling developer tools is fine. The other browsers, which are generally leaner than Firefox, include them.

Also, bundled developer tools can be nice when you're trying to debug an issue on a user's machine. It's a small thing, but it's nice to not make them install some plugin.

> The other browsers, which are generally leaner than Firefox

Not anymore, judging by binary size and lines of code.

At this point, developer tools are essentially a required feature for a browser. All else aside, there's no way to debug a bug that's specific to a single browser without tools integrated into that browser.

And that's relevant to what proportion of the user-base?