Understand for a moment that Microsoft isn't even counted as Big Tech by most people: GAFA (Google Apple Facebook Amazon) or FAANG (Facebook Apple Amazon Netflix Google) as Big Tech is usually referred by.
Microsoft isn't or can't line the necessary wallets to play with the big boys, simply speaking. This means they don't get to enjoy the perks of Big Tech, but also get to enjoy not being lambasted along with them.
Microsoft is in the top 3 of big tech market cap (US). They officially spend about $10M per year lobbying in the US, which is in the same ballpark as other big tech. Maybe the HN crowd doesn't count Microsoft as big tech, but financial markets, enterprises, governments, and regulators most definitely do.
No Microsoft isn’t treated like BigTech by geeks who listened to a loud mouth guy on CNBC who originally coined the term “FANG” (notice the missing “A”) that included a Netflix who’s market share is nothing compared to Apple and Microsoft that were already two of the 5 most valuable companies even when the term was coined
Microsoft isn't or can't line the necessary wallets to play with the big boys, simply speaking. This means they don't get to enjoy the perks of Big Tech, but also get to enjoy not being lambasted along with them.