That's a good middle position, but it's still not without drawbacks. The PC ecosystem has always been about Microsoft providing the OS, and a bevy of name brand vendors providing the hardware. Put Microsoft in an adversarial relationship with the hardware vendors, and the whole uneasy alliance falls apart.

Luckily, Microsoft doesn't have to do anything, and the free market is already solving this. Most people will buy hardware with annoying ads exactly once, then they'll find another alternative. This natural self-correction makes the tradeoffs above even more serious by comparison.