This isn't about winning users. It's about not dying. Web browsers are one of the most complicated pieces of software in human history. Skilled developers cost money, lots of money.

I doubt it. I'm guessing this won't bring in significant money for a while at least, and it'll lose users in the short term. Monetizing search, as with the Google now Yahoo deal, is where the money for developers comes from. This only makes sense if the goal is to shake things up. What its chances of success there are, and how positive that outcome would be, is still an unknown in my head. But Mozilla only exists to have an impact on the Web, so it kind of makes sense.

(I work for Mozilla, but have no special insight into this initiative.)