Recall that Microsoft initially tried to make the hot reload feature of .NET 6 available only in Visual Studio. Their 3E strategy continues to this day.
I always saw it as Microsoft is clearly two (or more) companies now. Some of those companies are very much what Microsoft was always like. Some others aren't at all like microsoft in anything but name.
That might be a useful point of view if you happen to work at GitHub and you don't really want to wake up to the fact that you actually work for Microsoft now. But for anyone else, everything Microsoft owns is Microsoft, and they'll use the products and properties they owned to further the goal of Microsoft, which is maximizing shareholder profits, just like any other public company.
Companies compete like boxers in a ring. You win some, you lose some. MS is the boxer who would hit below the belt if no one is looking and will try to main/kill you if they can.
> maximizing shareholder profits, just like any other public company
Show me one of these big technology companies that doesn't act to benefit their shareholders?
Microsoft is Google is Apple is Amazon. They're all the same internally. The only difference is their optics when you're looking at them as an outsider. But really, they all work toward the same goal, increasing their stock price.
Yes, you said that Microsoft is "just like any other public company" but "Except way more mercenary".
I'm saying that no, Microsoft is just like the others. They're all like that. All of them would hit below the belt if the risk/reward calculation is correct for shareholders.
That might not be a good way to look at it, there might be some people that want to just deliver some good products, but the company itself is not something that should be given the benefit because of those few employees. Microsoft == Microsoft
Remember "Microsoft loves open source" phrase from just few years ago? Guess what, Ike also loved Tina.