It’s possible they lack vision and focus for this thing, such that they go out and do “Java support” without making it good or caring about it.
On the other hand, we’re talking about Microsoft. If you lived in the 90s, I find it hard to imagine how you can see Microsoft in any other light. I know: different times, different leadership. But still: it seems possible that they’ve got a huge vision for this and want to do the equivalent of Internet Explorer 1 and 2 just to be out in the market, so they can come back and do versions 3 and 4 as their position has become entrenched.
I think it’s less that and more that Microsoft is leveraging Redhat’s focus on Java. They have built a good editor and plug-in environment, then engage organizations stronger in other tech and have them build support.
Reality check, Microsoft is a Java vendor nowadays, after having bought jClarity, has a seat at OpenJDK table, official Java blog in English and Chinese on MSDN, and Java is the only plaform that has biggest parity with .NET features on Azure.
...no surprise, why would they waste their time on it? They give zero fruitcakes about Java.
Let’s just say, 3rd party plugins (like the redhat Java language support) are.... not of the same quality... as the Microsoft plugins.