[VieElm]

Microsoft is obligated to its stakeholders (investors and employees) to capture all the value it can for the products it creates. They're not building software out of goodwill. You do have the choice to not buy Office if you don't like the pricing scheme.

[ytdht]

you do, but is it the most profitable option for Microsoft is my point

[scholia]

It could fill it with adverts and track you, which is how Google pays for its "free" stuff. Or it could attach it to $1,500 hardware dongles, like Apple.

The Microsoft ecosystem is much more powerful, and works both online and offline, and it's cross-platform (Windows, Android, iOS), but you don't think any of this is worth paying for?

Perhaps you have much more important things to spend your money on. How much is your smartphone costing you? How much do you spend on Spotify, or Starbucks?

How much would you have to pay Google for the 50GB mailbox and 1TB of storage bundled with Office 365?