How am I biased? I don't work for Microsoft. If using a technology stack makes one biased and thereby (as you imply) invalidates their opinion, then let's just shut down Hacker News right now because nobody is capable of expressing an unbiased opinion in your opinion.
The reality is that Microsoft has free development tools that millions of people use - for free.
It's not convoluted at all.
Want a free on-premises database? Simple. Use SQL Server Express. That will handle a database up to 10 GB.
Want to have Microsoft host your SQL Database for you? Simple. Use Windows Azure SQL Database. $10 per month for 1GB and then $3.96 per GB per month after that up to 10 GB and then cheaper from there.
Have you ever even looked into using Microsoft software or did you just immediately dismiss it without looking at it?