Truly. A 12 year old quote is one of the first things that comes to mind, STILL, in every conversation about the console. I don't know if I ever saw a company made self-inflicted gunshot wound like it. Thing is, that's what Microsoft is. Even if Xbox has plenty of passionate folks (like Laura) trying to do their best, they could never get out from under the shadow of Microsoft leadership and culture. It's poison. Profitable poison.
Microsoft barely cares about Windows these days, it's just a platform they control. At the end of the day, they want people to subscribe to Game Pass, Microsoft Office, and Azure. Windows is a convenient means to that end. There is no gaming presence on Mac, and although things are trending positively for Linux, it's not ready for mass user adoption (even SteamOS). Windows is the only game in town and a way for Microsoft to fluff up their publishing business, which is really all they've cared about historically until Sony posed an existential threat through the living room.
It doesn't require the axe as a whole (I know you aren't saying that, the person you replied to is). It certainly needs cost cutting to make it profitable, and there's no way they trimmed all the fat and redundancies away considering the way they bought the companies and how hands off Microsoft was the first year or two of the purchase. With the waning hardware business, there are whole teams that are probably done for. Why do you need all of that when you have no clear future plans, and are partnering with a third party expert to create the next Xbox?