The difference being if you were already in Apple's ecosystem, you had a choice either put up with it, or leave the ecosystem.
On Windows there's literally no reason to have to put up with it. Just carry on using an x86 laptop, native x86 apps and wait for this fad to all blow over. (Much like every other fad that MS has tried to force - Windows Phone, Windows 8, their first attempt at Surface ARM)
Yes, Microsoft should concentrate on their strengths instead of enviously looking over at Apple and try to copy anything they do, badly.
Microsoft's strengths are X86 compatibility, like i said before i never need to think about anything working on my Windows X86 OS, no matter what it is it just works, Apple is a walled garden, if its not approved by Apple it doesn't even install.
Some people like that, but Apple are not the market leaders, not by a very long way, Microsoft are,
Microsoft need to concentrate on improving their OS, Intel and AMD are keen to work with them to improve that OS but are largely ignored, its taken Intel and AMD years to get better thread scheduling in to Windows and even still its a half arsed broken crap job of it, AMD developed their own API as a competitor to DX11 to get them to update DirectX for modern GPU's as those GPU's were developing at pace with Microsoft's API already a decade out of date.
ARM can't do anything that X86 can't and X86 can do it all just as well, if Microsoft want to support specific fixed function extensions Intel and AMD could easily do that with X86, i'm sure both Intel and AMD have made such suggestions themselves.
Microsoft seem to have a missguided downer on X86 and their own OS, Intel developed X86 because they saw a gap in the market.
Developing for fixed function hardware was difficult and expensive, it also locked normies out of home computing, what Intel did, along with IBM was invent the Personal Computer, what Microsoft did was recognise the value in IBM's software, copied it and mass marketed it, none of it was possible without X86.
Those are the reasons Windows and X86 are dominant today, those were very different times when engineers wanted everyone to have unrestricted access to everything, these days walling everything off in to your own ecosystem is recognised as a much more profitable business model, X86 is in a front to that.
