Systemd was 100% created by redhat, so no, corporate backers aren't the problem.
The real problem is that Microsoft has historically tried to destroy linux, and beyond that, has a huge history of FUD and embrace and extinguish.
Many in the OSS community consider Microsoft to be pure evil.
And if their historical behaviour is any indication, nothing they do with/for Linux will turn out well, or good for the community.
And now they're one of the major backers. All the work is being done in the open, so it's not like there's a nefarious hidden agenda there (an agenda that would have needed to somehow stay dormant for 10+ years).
The idea that working for Microsoft is something dirty that should be shunned for open source just doesn't make practical sense.
And embrace and extend can exist in OSS models.
Microsoft is dirty, and it is dirt they cannot wash off in a mere few years.
If they behave correctly for 20 years, as long as they behaved in a literally evil fashion, then maybe they have reformed.
Just a reminder holding grudges isn't good for your mental health.
Microsoft has done many terrible things. Most companies of that size have. But they have also done a ton of good things. It’s impossible to take a group of tens of thousands of humans and not find rampant examples of both good and terrible things.
Sometimes one outweighs the other and that may sound like where you are but there is a wide gap between doing evil and saving lives, and most of us live somewhere in that gap.
But everything I see since Nadella has taken over, tells me that they aren't just paying lip service, that they have just realized nearly a decade ago that it's good business to embrace (loaded word) Linux if they have any chance for Azure to succeed, and their moves suggest that's a core part of their future.