In terms of preservation, digital media is surely superior if you use it right (i.e. using long-lasting storage media, backups and error detection).
But, some people prefer physical books just for the experience. Also physical books don't need electricity.
Also, a DRM-free ebook may still miss some layout or images compared to a printed copy, depending on the format and how good it's made.
All in all, I still prefer e-books.
You're right. It's still stupid though.
Companies should be at least as concerned with privacy and autonomy as individuals. Running everything on Microsoft Clouds, with Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office makes you massively vulnerable to the whims of Microsoft. And many of the potential customers are actually Microsoft's competitors on some level.
Thin clients may be a good model for some businesses, but this device particularly seems to be tailored to use only Microsoft's Azure cloud as opposed to self-hosting. Moving the computation to Microsoft's cloud doesn't make it inherently safer.
Sure, let's just move your personal desktop to someone else's computer where you don't even own the data. What could possibly go wrong?
Let's go!