I don't think it's fair to compare using Chrome to being a chain smoker. It's a browser, just a tool, not something that makes me significantly happier while torpedoing my health. I could just as easily rot my brain with memes on Firefox. Yes, it's not great to foster a monopoly, but there's not much stopping me from switching if Google messes it up too much.
As for it being popular, I don't think I've seen a single comment on Lemmy praising it besides my own, it's all hate. Surely if Lemmy is an random sample of users you'd see someone else defending it.
Very excited for the new chemical plant! I haven't got to that stage in my game yet but I'm looking forward to it now.