It's quite important that developers actually test their desktop layout and functionality (hover states, etc which don't work on a touch screen) with Safari's engine.
We don't want websites to be written for compatibility with a single browser engine. That means developers are writing to Chrome's quirks, not to actual web standards. Over the long term, that gives Google complete control over how the web is run.
There are currently between 3 and 2.5 browser engines that matter, depending on how you count webkit vs blink. I'd really rather that not fall down to only 2 on desktop.
I’m not saying what we want I’m saying that whether we want it or not, it doesn’t matter whether Safari’s desktop market share drops from the current 3.6% (https://netmarketshare.com/browser-market-share.aspx?options...) to 1.8%, it won’t change the calculus on whether web designers care about desktop safari when they can just tell people who are complaining - use Chrome.
It makes a big difference for me, at my job. 3.6% is enough users that I can justify spending (some) time to test and fix bugs. As that number approaches 1%, however, it gets much harder.
