It mostly was politics. Browser crashes and slowness were almost always traced down to microsoft own java plugin that strongarmed proper java plugin install out of the way every update and every now and then to be sure, with a semi compatible runtime and a classloarlder that insisted fronting the dow load of all resources.

It created so much uncertainty across the ecosystem even today people repeat the "applet crashes browser line, god riddance" line

But it was deliberate action by microsoft.

So yeah 100% politics because without a court document in modern society we cannot call this anything else.

Yes I’m sure jobs went on stage calling out flash as the main source of Safari crashes because of Microsoft’s Java plugin.

No? Microsoft Java was discontinued in 2004, the crashes were infamous even way later in 2010. Flash was also notorious for crashing Firefox on YouTube. Not even mentioning the bad security of these plugins.