It's ironic, not one week ago there were a bunch of complaints on this site saying that Google was abusing their position of power (controlling YouTube, Chrome, Android TV, etc) by pushing AV1. Now they bring HEVC support to Chrome and the top comment is another complaint!
(That said, I agree with you. I think a codec being royalty free is a very good reason to prefer it to other codecs.)
Personally, I have no idea why people are so upset about WebM and AV1 and etc. Like sure, they're not necessarily God's gift to AV, but they're reasonable enough, and patent unencumbered. Google may be awful, but that doesn't mean the incentives can't align. I can tell you that my incentives are perpendicularly aligned with MPEG-LA's in this situation, so...
Hostages? I'd say Google is better than most regarding data portability, assuming that's what you're referring to, offering 'takeout' for just about everything.
The comment was about the internet "hivemind"; no need to be pedantic about it.
Keep in mind that upwards of 95% of people will read comments but not post any themselves (and to address an obvious retort, sure, it'll be a different 95% for each submission). So the general "tone" of the comments absolutely impacts public perception, especially now that practically no-one consumes straight-news without social media commentary.
Redditors use identical arguments: "we're different people!" when their website is the most groupthink-y of all.
Threads are groupthink, but subreddits with diverse topics are less groupthink than you'd think. Different user groups turn out for different headlines, at different times, etc.
TBF they can be abusing their position + helping other companies abuse their position as well.
Just reading about the historical context of AV1 it all feels like huge dirty lawyer battles involving troves of money thrown around, with the user as a hostage indirectly footing the bill in the end so we can't just ignore all the drama.
I would want to side with Google on the open side they seem to be championing, but there's no way it doesn't come with huge side effects that we will pay sooner or later.
All to say, it's looks like a complicated enough matter that opinions will be devised and all options might not be great, some just being more acceptable than others.
(That said, I agree with you. I think a codec being royalty free is a very good reason to prefer it to other codecs.)