It wasn't "any member having a veto over doing anything". Don't attack a straw man. It was every other browser manufacturer unanimously saying Dart is a bad idea, and specifically outlining reasons for doing so. The only possible position you could have in support of Google here is that Google should be able to push whatever it wants, on account of Chrome being open source. In other words, monopolistic behavior is fine as long as it's open source. I don't agree with that.
Also "Works best in Chrome" is hardly a self-inflicted wound. With the might of Google, that's actually a recipe for browser monopoly. This is the reason why Google pushed ahead with Dart despite the opposition.
How would your opinion change if Dart was just a cross-compiler to JS like GWT or CoffeeScript?
And if you have no problem with that, then why is there a problem with a Dart VM in Chrome? All it means is that potentially, Chrome apps will startup faster or run a little faster.
However, this is not really much difference than V8 vs other JS VMs. There was a time when V8 was way way faster than other JS VMs, so the same speed differential existed anyway.
There's a difference between "doesn't run" and "runs, but faster"
Also "Works best in Chrome" is hardly a self-inflicted wound. With the might of Google, that's actually a recipe for browser monopoly. This is the reason why Google pushed ahead with Dart despite the opposition.