I think any other browser would also need a server with the hosted extension packages, so the point here is misguided: you did not get an error related to Brave servers while *not* using Brave services.
Generally speaking, other Chromium-based browsers simply load the CRX (extension file) directly from Google's server. This puts the user's device in direct contact with the advertising and data-harvesting giant.
In Brave's case, we proxy the requests to prevent direct contact. As such, when a user attempts to install an extension in Brave, the browser sends the request through a *.brave.com endpoint, which relays it to Google, and returns the CRX (or other response).
In the author's case, they may have sent an invalid request to Brave's proxy endpoint (e.g. missing or invalid service key). This can happen when you're using an out-of-date build of the browser. It's not clear to us at this time what caused the "Access Denied" error, but we know that a missing/invalid key could yield these results.
Sure, but my point is that you cannot complain about the extension store being down while...trying to use the extension store. Nothing has a SLA of 100% (I know that this was not due to downtime, but the possibility remains).
It would be different if he was trying to visit www.archive.org and got an error from www.brave.com
