The removal of NPAPI is, ultimately, probably a good thing for users. However, it is frightening to watch a replay of IE4, when a browser developer created a much better product, then proceeded to drive all of innovation in the browser space. At the time, they were probably all good things (at least, in many people's minds; hindsight colors it differently now). At least, until Microsoft decided they won the Internet and stopped doing any innovation (hell, they even stopped trying to keep up with the Jones). Due to the stranglehold they had on market share, it was an intensely painful time for web development.
Google is nearing the point of having won the Internet in the same way. Will we see something similar? Probably not to the same extent: Google's fortunes are too tightly tied to the Internet to drop out like Microsoft did (Microsoft failed to realize everybody's fortunes were tied to the Internet), but I still worry when a single company feels like it can make wide-sweeping, unilateral decisions about the web.
Google is nearing the point of having won the Internet in the same way. Will we see something similar? Probably not to the same extent: Google's fortunes are too tightly tied to the Internet to drop out like Microsoft did (Microsoft failed to realize everybody's fortunes were tied to the Internet), but I still worry when a single company feels like it can make wide-sweeping, unilateral decisions about the web.