> I've been using Android for years, and have not seen funny business after I disable Chrome.
You have not seen any funny business because Chrome WebView, which many applications depend on, is a separate application. Developer settings let you change it to another application, but only from a hardcoded list of package names and only if they're installed to /system. There are also no non-Chromium WebView implementations available to my knowledge.
So no, unless you're OK with breaking applications that use WebView, you can't remove Chrome from an Android smartphone.
You have not seen any funny business because Chrome WebView, which many applications depend on, is a separate application. Developer settings let you change it to another application, but only from a hardcoded list of package names and only if they're installed to /system. There are also no non-Chromium WebView implementations available to my knowledge.
So no, unless you're OK with breaking applications that use WebView, you can't remove Chrome from an Android smartphone.