> the biggest failure of MV3 is not in lacking anything new whatsoever, it's in forcing the removal of a lot of API options which were useful in the name of ulterior motives.

What was the ulterior motive? If it was to break ad blocking, it seems like they did a really terrible job, as MV3 ad blockers work great. That's not me saying that, here is a paper from researchers at Goethe University Frankfurt who tested it:

> Moreover, cross-browser experiments yield comparable outcomes, and visual inspection confirms that MV3 ad blockers work effectively without significant ad flickering or loss of functionality

From: https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.01000

> Funnily enough, this morning I ran across another feature I didn't realize was missing in MV3

I think you could accomplish this by redirecting instead of blocking, then increment a counter in a webRequest callback. There would obviously be a performance cost, as blocking is so cheap and callbacks are expensive...

Regardless, I think it's jarring hearing you call custom DNR rules "painting the house red", a legitimately powerful feature... and then point to a missing counter in the UI as evidence of lacking features!

Anyway, let's leave it there!