> "But why are those providers returning incorrect data?"
In this case, because they decided actually implementing the protocol they were supposed to be implementing didn't work for their hacky design, so they hacked together a series of Good Enough workarounds.
These cloud companies are the Microsoft Internet Explorer of DNS service but unlike IE6 they're considered cool enough that they're tolerated.
Cloudflare is well known for breaking DNS standards whenever they feel like it; they’re too big to ignore, so they get away with murder.