I think part of this is because Microsoft already has mountains of barely used legacy code they need to support. With every choice they remove, they can remove some of it, or at least make sure it doesn't grow.

It is so easy to dismiss Microsoft's actions as malice or laziness rather than consider why they actually might be doing something.

They have, and it works well. Also, you don't have to use it so they do it fact give you a choice.