I recently started using firefox and was very frustrated with how large the UI was, how it autofilled entire URLs while i was trying to search something, and how it changed my system's titlebar buttons (minimize, maximize, close) to windows ones when I changed the theme from the default. I just found out about about:config and was able to solve every major issue i had with firefox literally within minutes, so why do they hide most of the settings?
it makes way more sense to just put the settings in the settings menu. also, why hide the compact density option? on a 1920x1080 display the default is about an eighth of my screen, my taskbar is only like 60% of that. having tried a couple of firefox-based browsers, i can confidently say the only thing any of them do better (aside from telemetry that can be easily turned off) is their settings. why does firefox hide most of the settings?
Wether or not people care has nothing to do with how basic something is. Like yeah, most people don't care if their browser fills in a whole url when they type in the address bar, but some people search for different but similar things often enough that a browser doing that makes it unusable. I am one such person. Also, if someone doesn't care about their browser then they aren't changing any settings in the first place, so putting a couple more basic options (that, I cannot stress enough, are already in the browser but have been hidden in a much less user friendly interface) has literally no effect on them, while making the experience much better for users who do want to change a couple settings. This is why most apps have a settings menu that actually contains the settings, not just privacy options and a link to the themes.