If they'd like to give me some consideration for my data I'd be happy to entertain their offer. (Being granted the right to use the software, in cases where I'm paying for the license, doesn't constitute consideration to me.)
Not alleging there is such transparency here, just raising the question. It always seems like even anonymous telemetry is considered harmful, and I don't understand why that is from a conceptual standpoint.
There's probably, like, a particular way I move the mouse from the bottom left to the top right corner of my screen. A 'mouse cursor gait', if you will.
To be frank though, there doesn't need to be a reason. You're treating this as a Stockholm-syndrome esque situation - I don't need to use Windows, I definitely don't need to justify why I don't like certain aspects of it.
Some people do need to use Windows for various reasons. Consider yourself lucky if you don’t.
They are collecting usage-stats, aggregated data, in a way which deliberately has been decoupled from your identity so they won’t have to face the kind of liability issues you just mentioned.
If anything, MS seems like one of the few big actors in IT which “gets” GDPR, and they are using it their advantage in the enterprise market.
Of course unwanted telemetry (no matter how anonymized) is going to taint that image somewhat.