This is no different from the Netscape/Internet Explorer shenanigans of the 1990s. Trouble is, the new generation of computer users don't know MSFT's previous history so they are "shocked!".
For the rest of us, it's just Microsoft being a dick as usual.
And then they do things like this. The Windows core team feels to me like a clandestine shadow organization in Microsoft whose location is unknown even to Nadella. Of course, that's not what's happening, and its startling to me that no one has cracked down on them for this shitty behavior.
Its not representative of how Microsoft, by and large, operates today. It is representative of how they used to operate.
Wait til they become dominant again and they'll be back to their old ways.
The similar screens that get shown when installing updates are just as creepy, to the point that I've heard of others mistaking them for a ransomware infection:
http://images-cdn.9gag.com/photo/a9PQep0_700b.jpg
I seriously do not understand the group of people at MS who think doing such things were an excellent idea.
nothing they do surprises me these days
You probably weren't old enough to see this blatant behaviour in the 1990s.
It wouldn't bother me if they overpriced their stuff like Apple does or bought every competitor like Facebook does, etc. It only bothers me when they make their product unusable like they've done with Windows.
They aren’t separate issues. Monopoly is the absence of effective competition (a place people go when you make things worse, whether in cost or UX or otherwise). That's what makes them free to do it “so tastelessly”.