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Assuming this is not an oversight and microsoft is purposefully withholding licensing their patents, why did Microsoft join the OIN?

My naive guess is either PR or to obtain a hard-to-get license grant from a competitor but I expect I'm wrong on both counts.

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Microsoft’s use of Linux on Azure cloud was in violation of patents in the OIN patent pool, which includes patents held by Google and IBM. Now, not only are they not in violation without having to pay for licensing, but they are also getting a lot of great PR.

It's right there in the article: Only patents relating to the upstream kernel are included. The "Linux System Definition" is the baseline for the non-aggression pact.

The exfat system is not part of the Linux System Definition because it is not part of the upstream kernel, so it isn't covered by the non-aggression pact, so Microsoft did not include the exfat patents.

Could it become part of upstream kernel though now ?

That's basically what the post is asking for. (i.e. as the pledge currently stands, probably not)

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