I don't necessarily agree with your argument - I think it's a perfectly reasonable conclusion that either Microsoft and Google could have worse telemetry in their browser.

That said, I noticed the strange behavior around this article as well. I've seen it pop up multiple times in various content aggregators, and the /r/technology mods even removed the post that I happened to notice and comment in.

I'm not sure why, it seemed like a completely reasonable article on its face. But maybe there's something underhanded going on behind the scenes?