This is revisionist, butthurt Linux people and Netscape investors always repeat this lie.
Time has proved that nobody is willing to pay for a browser but it has to either be free or come as free with the OS.
Time also proved that people who know that they are top notch in their field want a top notch quality of life. If you are one of those top notch people and go work at Microsoft you end up with a beachfront property in Miami and boat not smaller than 40ft, if you take your skills to Linux you end up with a pat on the back and maybe become a moderator role in some obscure online forum.
Microsoft won because smart people understand that when you start talking about compensating them with exposure or social status instead of money that's the signal to get the hell out of there. If you don't you end up in a cult.
Linux and free and open software is what gave birth to the web, and so quite naturally working with it evolves better and more naturally there.
Bill Gates and Windows famously absolutely missed the boat on the Internet nearly entirely. And yes, to this day they're still trying to catch up -- this is evident in their extremely late realization that they were never ever going to beat Linux at this. Hence WSL. (the Linux Subsystem for Windows :) )