[WaylonKenning]

One man's trash is another man's treasure. Otherwise we'd all be reading a website called Hacker Facts, not Hacker News.

These anecdotes provide societal context to the story. Why would Microsoft get the public to harden their product? Surely they have enough resources to do it themselves right?

Because many eyes make light work. Some people would obsess over trying to hack this OS, putting in far more effort than someone paid 9-5 to do it.