The twisted reasoning is probably so that the users can access the emails anywhere with their live account (and so that MS can scrape those mails for all sorts of creepy shit)
Google goes through every Gmail that's sent or received, looking for keywords so they can target Gmail users with paid ads. And there's no way to opt out of this invasion of your privacy. Outlook.com is different—we don't go through your email to sell ads.
uninstall the 'new' outlook app and use the 'old' mail app if you must. can at least do that, until they forcibly remove the old one and migrate users.
the new-look thunderbird is ok, as is emclient (proprietary but free-to-use version is available).
Any outlook alternative that doesn't look pre-dotcom? I really liked the Microsoft Mail app for its simplicity and the ability to have multiple inboxes, it's a shame it is being replaced by outlook.
Thunderbird still isn't too much of a looker, but it got a lot better recently after they added the vertical layout and made a bunch of smaller improvements. I've been using it for a few months now (after having avoiding it for maybe a decade), and I'm pretty enthusiastic about it.
I've been looking at options for my older clients as MS has been pushing this new Outlook client. Thunderbird is unfortunately fugly compared to more modern looking apps. I haven't been successful transitioning any of those older folks to using Thunderbird as it's too different for them.
I've been rolling back the Outlook installs but it's just a bandaid. I'd love to hear that's there's a comparable replacement to the W10 mail app.