Chrome is so much not a reference in design that we should take this take carefully
Are you confusing modern Google Chrome with early Google Chrome, or did you dislike early Google Chrome?
All other browser I've tried (firefox, vivaldi, edge, safari, atlas, many others) and all other programs with a tab-based UI I use (zed, vs code, sqlitebrowser) look worse.
When it was new its design was a big draw (second to performance, of course).