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I'm sure that's a requirement for being a "Tier-1" language.

Eh, they call TypeScript a tier 1 language too.

MSVC always was the default backend for Windows platforms.

Codegen was still done via LLVM. LLVM supports the MSVC _runtime_, here they're talking about using their (arguably worse) backend directly to generate code and do optimisations

... but why? The MSVC backend has been falling far behind LLVM with every release. I understand they want uniformity but IMHO either they catch up or they switch fully to LLVM, if they can

Windows ecosystem, and all those things MSVC backend can do and LLVM does not.

For the same reason a Rust frontend is being developed for GCC.

What are these things?

Targeting XBox, Windows drivers in kernel mode, COM interop, structured exception handling, UWP sandboxing,

Thanks, I wasn't aware.

I'm surprised that COM is still a thing!

COM is the main delivery mechanism for Windows APIs since Windows Vista.

After the Longhorn reboot all the .NET based APIs were remade in COM, while WinRT introduced in Windows 8, adds a new base interface, replaces type libraries with .NET metadata, and requires an application identity.