Let's. Microsoft is the biggest spender on R&D amongst software companies and they sponsor a lot of research without clear immediate benefits. This is in stark contrast to all the other big companies who largely only sponsor projects driven by product requirements. They regularly publish research papers in the best conferences and journals. MSR is the last bastion of well-funded, blue sky industrial R&D and the closest (though still a far cry) approximation we have to the precedent set by Bell Labs and Xerox Parc.

I don't begrudge them a few patents in exchange for that.

Can you give some stats to quantify your comments?

Never praise a good thing while a bad thing exists.

yep. this times a hundred.

I keep saying that for a lot of people there's nothing they could do to change their opinion because people are so invested in them being a bad guy. It's part of a world view.