There's a lot of positing here. To assume the "average user" doesn't understand what browser tabs, PDFs, and FAQs are seems ... odd. Now these may or may not be fine tips, but they are not recommendations based on best practices or any research that I can tell. If they are, I'd be interested in seeing it.
It says "Modern experience for modern browsers and devices.". Is that just an empty sentence or are they using a better engine? The paragraph after just talks about pixels and white space.
What costs are you cutting? No, vacationing in 5-star hotels for 8 years would not be cheap but that's not a necessity for travelling. You probably don't rent a 5-star apartment at home.
If we were to all support another search engine instead, then they'd have the same power. And I'd hope they would do the same thing Google is doing right now.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evelyn_Beatrice_Hall