I use Microsoft Edge because it is *way* better than Safari. It loads pages faster, renders faster, syncs better between devices, offers more extensions, multiple accounts work better, it's cross-platform, and since Apple turned Safari into a mess on iOS 26, the mobile experience is more efficient in Edge. I keep trying to go back to Safari, but there are too many compromises.
Similar experience with Outlook vs. Mail. Outlook is ugly and I can't get used to the all-in-one design, but the formatting options work so much better than the ones in Mail that it makes my workflow more efficient when composing messages. For example, numbered lists actually work correctly, pasted images can be resized by dragging, and attachments appear at the top of the message (yes, I know they're "hidden" in a drop-down at the top of messages in Mail, along with every inline graphic file that is in the message--not intuitive).
When I have work to do, I'm looking for capability, not eye candy or workarounds. I had to boot up my Win 11 VM this morning because I needed to extract a table from a multi-page PDF document into Excel. Mac Excel doesn't have that capability, and neither does LibreOffice, but Windows Excel does. Do I do this every day? No. But when I need to do it, having the tools immediately available so that my workflow remains efficient is what's important. I prefer the macOS user experience, stability, privacy, and hardware, but sometimes I have to boot up the Windows VM. Linux is even farther away (a long way) when it comes to efficient productivity. Hacks, scripting, and workarounds are not efficient when the Microsoft app will perform the desired function in 2 or 3 clicks. As an added bonus, most of the business world uses Microsoft Office, so compatibility is not a concern when exchanging documents (LibreOffice is good, but not perfect).
Microsoft has started "injecting" Copilot into the app experience, but you can quickly disable it in the application preferences, including in Edge on the desktop and iOS.
