Firefox - why is it better?

Again I am not trying to start a rant I just want to know.

I find firefox somewhat inferior to the previous mozilla. Why do
people support it so?

1. The ctrl-l option is somewhat worse than the previous ctrl-shift-l
option.
2. I would like my downloaded files to go in my home directory. So as
root I want them to go into /root. That may be unreasonable to some
people but it can't be done in firefox. The Desktop folder is the last
place I want to put them.
3. The interface to add helper applications is obscure compared to
mozilla.

And on and on. I guess I am just a curmudgeon. Remember I am not trying
to start a rant , I am just very curious why firefox is taking over.
-- 

=======================================================================
It's odd, and a little unsettling, to reflect upon the fact that
English is the only major language in which "I" is capitalized; in many
other languages "You" is capitalized and the "i" is lower case.
		-- Sydney J. Harris
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Aaron Konstam
Computer Science
Trinity University
One Trinity Place.
San Antonio, TX 78212-7200

telephone: [phone]
email:[e-mail]