Microsoft is accepting BitPay, not Bitcoin. It's like saying that Microsoft is accepting checking account payments, because PayPal supports it.
Think about it for a second.
Now look back at Bitcoin 5 years ago and compare where we are today. You're really not putting things into perspective.
Avoid the risk of purchasing bitcoin (either through mining hardware, or directly on exchanges), but gain the chance of capitalizing on bitcoin.
So it's like saying an accurate thing?
A small business won't accept credit because of the risk, so a third-party will pay the business - for a fee - and take the risk of the credit themselves. The business isn't accepting credit as you point out.
Here MS aren't accepting bitcoins they're accepting the use of a third-party that will pay them in dollars on your behalf.
What's the point of that distinction? Well if MS truly accept bitcoins themselves then they would have holdings in bitcoins rather than in dollars, they would then be [capable of] trading in bitcoin and would legitimise it somewhat. Here they're not legitimising it to any useful degree, they're allowing BitPay to do all the bitcoin elements.
tl;dr - Call me when MS \buy\ something using bitcoins.