Not just at MSFT, seems that the entire industry is headed in that one direction. It seems now you have 1-2 true innovators in the industry and then a littany of copycats.
Short form video is probably the shining example of this. TikTok was first to make the innovation (technically Vine), and then everyone copied them verbatim from there (Reels, YT Shorts, Whatver the hell FB is doing, Twitter). Sometimes this copying has a positive effect like when Twitter copied Clubhouse with Spaces, but often times it just ends up being half assed versions of the thing that was initially popular/innovative.
You expect trillion-dollar companies to contribute to society by occasionally doing some original work. Instead, they suck the oxygen out of the room by copying market-successful ideas, thereby stifling innovators.
There's alot of naysaying against selfhosting & p2p, saying people don't care about that stuff.
But to me the clear advantage is having malleable systems & protocols. It's the ability for folks to try different things, to change the products or make new products that interoperate.
Being dependent on so few to provide all the "innovation" & leaving everyone else as consumer to that provided "innovation" feels like a broken system.
Short form video is probably the shining example of this. TikTok was first to make the innovation (technically Vine), and then everyone copied them verbatim from there (Reels, YT Shorts, Whatver the hell FB is doing, Twitter). Sometimes this copying has a positive effect like when Twitter copied Clubhouse with Spaces, but often times it just ends up being half assed versions of the thing that was initially popular/innovative.