If I want to opt out, I can only opt out by disabling all usage telemetry according to the official doc https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/share-data-mozilla-help-improve-firefox . That means that my usage habits and the usage habit of all people that do not want to share their search terms with firefox, i.e. all somewhat privacy interested people is just thrown into the void. For future browser decisions, this means that the browsing behavior of a whole group is neglected. This makes me sad.
As much as I appreciate Mozilla halting Chromiums complete stranglehold on the web. I even used to donate what I could to the project a while back, But they’ve also been fucking up so much lately I can’t even in good faith recommend vanilla Firefox anymore.
But forks like LibreWolf still require Mozilla to stay afloat as they’re not maintaining the back end only scraping the crud off the top.
So it’s really starting to feel like a lose/lose situation.