Great roundup, and I agree with most recommendations. Bing, maybe not.
I’ve loved a lot of New Microsoft (GitHub, VS Code) and since I’m on macOS + Linux, and have avoided installing Microsoft apps, hadn’t been exposed to that side of the company for years.
Recently, though, I’ve installed Office (client driven need), Teams (hoping the native Mac app would be better than running Teams in a browser), and Edge (to work with Bing Chat). The experience ranged from “ughhh” on the positive end to “UNINSTALL NOW” on the negative.
I can confidently report: the old M$ DNA is alive and well.