I constantly write unpopular items. Never been blocked or banned by Microsoft. Their tools work.

Seems to me that you are barking up a fear tree on this. But, I will acknowledge that MS, like Google, and Apple, all love our data.

Life is simple. Keep your critical stuff offline. And when SHTF, then you are still fully functional.

Personally, after I put monitoring on my net traffic, I have found more strange transmissions to Google's services and tools, than I ever have from MS.

Even my net traffic dropped on my network as soon as I dropped Android.

If you want privacy, drop Google, Facebook, and all other cloud based tech, as you drop MS. And resume using printing presses and Typewriters.

If you want functionality, while mitigating liability, stop using "free". Again, dropping Google, FB, and the "Free" MS products.

As long as the old school MS cronies remain retired, then I believe that MS will remain less intrusive than Google and FB.