Re: Mavericks isn't exactly a spring chicken
It's doing networking, and Apple have been fairly aggressively tinkering with their networking stacks (yes, plural, there are multiple ones). For example, after Mavericks the entire domain name resolution subsystem was replaced. Apple also sunset insecure stuff like WEP, SMBv1 and old SSL versions before almost anyone else (because they can, and some big player has to).
I don't know how much of the networking stack Chrome implements for itself, but it's certainly possible there's some API in Yosemite or later they want to use.
This is before we get to other API changes in the UI etc.
So, yes, a program of Chrome's size and complexity probably *is* "intricately linked" to the OS, kernel and other supplied components.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
