I'm not confused; I just think that since Ubuntu is a (maybe THE) flagship GNOME distro, they should be consistent and use Epiphany. What reason do they have to use Firefox instead? It has a nasty XUL interface which is inconsistent with the rest of the desktop, and it doesn't integrate properly with GNOME. And yes, I think that Abiword and Gnumeric should be used by default too. Maybe that way they'd get some attention and become decent applications!
GNOME do not pay, or ask, Ubuntu to use GNOME. The relationship is the other way around. What reason to use Firefox? The extensions are the first and most obvious reason. And GNOME Office is missing a presentation program, among other things. I'd love for them to get more attention but with that glaring hole people will probably use and work on OpenOffice.org. Craig