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The difference appears to be that by now, everyone is kind of used to this behavior from Google.

True. I also think the techbro meme of “M$ bad, Google good” still has a certain hold on people's minds.

On the contrary, the current tech bro pretty much loves Microsoft ever since the cool CEO took over and deeply distrusts Google.

I'd attribute that to the fact that they actually have support. My MSDN subscription once had a problem activating, but it was quick and painless to solve by calling them. That alone makes them feel a lot more humane than Google, where you have to be lucky to ever reach a person even with critical problems like data loss inside GSuite.

I'd bet it has less to do with the cool CEO and more with the plethora of useful devtools and tech released by Microsoft lately.

Also, being able to reach a person on the phone regarding my Azure billing was radically different to being in contact (or lack thereof) with Google.

Project Zero, their general position in security-first¹, and nice hardware have me sticking around, even though I can't stand their methods and mission (ad dollars by any means).

¹Watch out for your privacy, though, if you don't remove Google "services" from your devices.

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