> it's an easy way to motivate people to having a Microsoft account.

Can you actually use a non-outlook account for windows? Or are you talking about a different kind of "ms account"?

>It's certainly not free to run and maybe it doesn't really make sense for Microsoft to run Outlook.com anymore, except that it's an easy way to motivate people to having a Microsoft account.

it also funnels people into using exchange for work. more like a "marketing expense".