If anything, isn't doing something free more potentially sinister, leaving room for an opinion of "weaponizing"?

At least the motive behind selling something is obvious ($$$). The motives behind doing something for free could range from benevolent to evil.

True. But for some reason I look more favorably on Apple for doing something new for free than Microsoft taking an existing platform and monetizing it.

To be clear I support both efforts (to various extents)...just in a fictional ranking context, I (personally) put Apple's bootcamp higher up than Microsoft's Minecraft efforts.