Wow, this is disturbing. Lest we forget that LinkedIn has been a Microsoft subsidiary for three years now. I wonder if Microsoft is doing this elsewhere too?
LinkedIn has been doing this (and a few other shady dark patterns) since way before being acquired by MSFT. And MSFT seems to be letting the recently acquired companies do their own thing and not interfere, which is what employees of those startups would most likely prefer. Not saying that this kind of hands-off approach is the best idea here (because i dont have a strong opinion on that), but i dont think it is fair to extrapolate the shady behavior of LinkedIn (that has been documented since a very long time ago) to the rest of MSFT