A quick summary, in my own words, of what the author is saying would boil down to:

Edge shows you a pop-up with mislabelled choices between “I comply with your demand because I’m informed” and “I don’t comply because I’m an ignorant”.

I wouldn’t be surprised it they kept spamming that pop-up over and over and over and over, ad nauseam, until “the dirty ignorant/user/moron finally sees the light” (i.e. until it tires you out).

The message in the pop-up is also disingenuous. Compare the following:

1. “With your permission, we’ll collect and use”
2. “With your permission, we collect and use”

The wording used is #1, but it’s really easy to read the message as if it used #2, given that you only need to miss a single contraction. And yet they convey different levels of commitment - in #1 they’re saying “we will do this, and we assume your permission”, while in #2 there’s still room to read it as “when you permit it, we do it”.

(Remember kids: if you need to choose between discourse analysis and crack cocaine, go for the later, it won’t be as bad for your mind.)

I don’t use MS products (except Minecraft) but here’s what a good designer would do, regarding options, provided that the designer doesn’t want to roll on dark patterns just like a pig rolling on mud:

• Stop dressing options as dialogue. Dialogue requires two human beings, and there’s only one there (the user). The program / application is an “it” and it should never be treated otherwise. Simply label buttons based on what they do.
• It’s a no-brain, but the option labels should accurately represent what they do. In this case enabling data vulturing vs. configurations.
• Yes, users are often too lazy to read. No, it is not fine to try to capitalise on this laziness to hide shit from the users.
• If there’s no “don’t change shit, keep it as is” option, odds are that you’re a piece of shit trying to force the user against his will.
• Imperatives are usually fine when they represent the user’s phatic speech towards the “it” (the program / application); for example, “show configs”. Usually they are not fine when it’s the “it” addressing the user, such as “learn more”.
• As hinted in the first part of my comment, stop assuming that everyone who doesn’t do what you want them to do is an ignorant that needs to “learn more”.

From HN comments:

Apparently this was part of Microsoft Rewards, which you can opt out of… in your Microsoft account. If you jumped through the hoops that are now required to get a local account, tough luck.

Roach motel pattern.

Why does Edge even exist at this point? Why does MS spend the money to continue to develop a browser that no one wants?

Yet another potential source of data for data vulturing. And a damn important one, regarding your browsing habits. It doesn’t even need to be competitive to be profitable.

Once companies reach a certain size, they become actively evil. It’s all about money, and they no longer care about their supposed customers.

Darwin explains it. It’s natural selection: selfish corporations thrive while decent corporations go bankrupt.

Oh all those - brainwashed? - web developers who love and use vs code and other MS based things.

Reading HN talking about brainwashed developers feels a lot like seeing religious people shit-talking each other’s religions.