It’s well documented that Microsoft did not behave well in the 90’s https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween_documents

However in the case of the Windows NT NetWare client I don’t think this happened.

I think one of the variations on Hanlons razor is a more likely explanation.

“You have attributed conditions to villainy that simply result from stupidity”

The really worrying thing is that all the major players seem to have the same strategy at the moment. That is to own and control the platform.