Where do you get that "getting a patch upstream" is part of open source? The entire point of my comment above is that that doesn't have anything to do with open source! Even the strict definition from the open source foundation that everyone always refers to () does not contain such an idea.

As far as free software is concerned, that is a completely different concept. If we look at the 4 freedoms:

    freedom 0: The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose.

Yup, there are no restrictions on how or where you can run Chromium.

    freedom 1: The freedom to study how the program works, and change it so it does your computing as you wish. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

Yup, totally possible with Chromium, source is freely available, although the licence is somewhat complex (but that is not an error on Google's part, simply a consequence of the fact that Google hasn't written Chromium completely on its own).

    freedom 2: The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help others

I have certainly seen a few mirrors/sources with compiled Chromium binaries gezien, so certainly possible.

    freedom 3: The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others. By doing this you can give the whole community a chance to benefit from your changes. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

A lot of companies and individuals do this, so certainly possible.

It sounds nice and all to say "It is definitely not in the spirit of free software, if you as an individual, in practice, cannot exert your 4 freedoms anymore.", but 'random individual contributions' is totally not a requirement in open source or free software. There is no "right to contribute".

And by the way, in the first place it is not correct either that you cannot contribute to Chromium. Of course Google employees make the project management choices, but it is fully well possible to contribute to Chromium. With e.g. AOSP (Android) that is a bit different, I believe. That doesn't make AOSP (Android) less open source, maar it is definitely worth criticising more. On the other hand with Chromium the dialog is always very open and input from the outside is usually quite welcome (I have shared my feedback often enough for implementations of new standards).