I have to wonder if they're not trying to speed up the rate of voluntary exits.

Definitely. If you quit, you don't get unemployment insurance benefits.

Microsoft is trading morale for money.

That doesn't make sense. People would either get new jobs or coast till layoff. No one preemptively quits to do nothing because they fear a layoff.

I would not think people would simply quit. They'd basically start to look for a job to beat the effect of all those other people being in the water. Of course this is no great secret so it might already be as if those people were in the water.

It would make sense to do it this way if these voluntary exits are a thing. Are they? Are they not? I'd love to learn more about this type of situation.

Or they give people a chance to find something else.