I dont think Microsoft was ever as bad as people think. I think a lot of it is as simple as the fact that while some of these developers are very talented in their field they are probably also quite bad at business. Being a Dev by no means qualifies you as capable of running a business. It’s likely a lot of these horror stories are from devs who just suck at business and Microsoft as a huge public corporate entity who must follow rules didn’t want to deal with their comparatively child-like nonsense.

Believe me I used to work in the industry. First as press then as PR. Tons of talented people with amazing ideas that were complete and total idiots and or incredibly socially inept.