Well... msft was already pretty big, but they hadn't been for very long. It might have been ok 3-4 years prior. Maybe like Tesla now, at least for elon. I doubt "PR flacks" had much sway at the company, if you go back to its formative years. Also, this seems to have been related to some sore points at that particular time.

Also, the world was more naive before "re:all" emails from hr.