I don’t think they are just for show. There are differences in which policies each party try to pass. The GOP is clearly fascist. The democratic party are clearly not fascist.

I don’t really agree that Brave should not be used because of a toxic fanbase.

I think the best reason not to use Brave is that they are a marketing/advertising company that claims to give their users privacy. Advertising companies will always have an incentive to invade privacy as it increase add revenues. Brave is just copying Google’s business model with extra steps.