Looking at the article, three main observations:
1) The top-down imposition seems to be pretty clear from the beginning of the project. It's obvious the initial reveal focused on Smartglass when that was still a thing. We know from CBOAT that there was a strong internal mandate for Smartglass stuff in the run-up to the launch and this gives us another data point. Knowing that Harrison said it had to be SaaS while Spencer said it had to have a single player campaign is another example of the confused direction. And we also have our first data point about Windows 10 being imposed unconditionally on developers to the detriment of the game design (Set aside my broader beef with UWP; Windows 10 is clearly a bad move for F2P games. F2P games do well by having the lowest possible spec requirements, lowest possible download barrier to entry. You do well on F2P by drawing in a huge huge audience. Not by limiting the size of your audience, doubly as the article points out). This jives with discussion we read from the Phantom Dust failure, that multiple managers tried to impose mutually contradictory demands on games being produced. It does sound like Harrison's tenure was pretty rocky because of the emphasis on Games as a Service not panning out.
I wrote about Microsoft's history with F2P a few months ago
2) The disclosure about how MS first party software has tanked since MS platform numbers have tanked is unfortunate. There had been discussion before about Halo 5's numbers, but this is another data point that reinforces this. Nintendo also experienced this with the Wii U. The rising tide lifts all boats the same way the sinking tide sinks all boats. Bummer for the talented developers caught up in the middle of this.
3) I think the people quoted really have some delusions about their own studio's role in the process. Especially the person who claimed "if this failed we'd just dismantle the assets and use them to make Fable 4" seems pretty presumptuous. I get that the story is going to have some skew because it's interviewing disappointed and dejected people who feel robbed, but it's pretty obvious which parts are a realistic assignment of blame and which aren't.
