It doesn't sound like he is trying to justify it. He's suggesting that the popular alternative is just as bad. In no way does that make Microsoft's action any better.
Exactly. Imagine if Google changed your windows installation to point shortcut to win word to point to a new chrome window in kiosk mode that opens docs.new...
Chrome literally did something like this. When the user searched the web from the Windows search box, it used to open their default browser to bing.com. Chrome started to inspect the url and redirect to Google.com. So Microsoft changed it to open Edge to block this bs.
I would argue the inverse. I set my preference in Chrome. Why is Windows forcing me to use Bing if I use the search box in Windows 10?