Their major competitors have the smart strategy: Skim a small amount off the top quietly and forever (Apple, Google, and Facebook). The perfect rent-seekers. Microsoft doesn't want to put in the hard work/time/cost to create a comparable skimming operation, so they take ugly shortcuts like this.
For one specific example, the Windows Store is trash. It has been trash for years. The visual refresh in Windows 11 hasn't fixed what is wrong with it (e.g. majority scam apps, difficult to locate stuff, difficult to evaluate the legitimacy/low trust). Microsoft needs to work hard/spend resources/put in the time to improve the experience, and then it will be a revenue generator, but why do that when you can do lazy stuff like this?
Microsoft could be selling paid upgrades that add legitimately value to Windows that sell themselves, but again that requires actual hard work.