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> The publication has filed several DMCA copyright requests

You can’t expect a lawyer to know the difference between copyright and patents.

If this is true, why wouldn't Microsoft patent the taskbar or directory structure tree layout pattern in Explorer?

I don't think you would be granted a design (let alone utility) patent that is as broad as "green and yellow blocks have significance, is a grid of 5x6, and has a keyboard below".

Not a lawyer though so what do I know

Microsoft did patent the taskbar. [1]

[1] https://patents.google.com/patent/US5920316A/en

No you can't.

https://patents.google.com/patent/US5662332A/en here is a patent for Magic the Gathering.

https://patents.google.com/patent/US20070226648A1/en

https://patents.google.com/patent/US10369470B2/en

You most certainly can

https://patents.google.com/patent/US11786805B1/en

This one refers to Wordle in the spec (which implies it's well known) and cites 5 other patents. Not knowing how Wordle works, I wouldn't speculate as to their chances of getting a patent, but NYT seems to be pursuing a copyright approach for now.