But then why is it still free on Windows? Remove the basic tier entirely, then.

Especially if you're correct that is a server/client system, then someone will just soon up a Docker container that has all of Windows 11 LTE and the Windows version of this pre-configured, so people can continue to use it in Linux anyway, or switch to an open-source alternative. They're already supporting and releasing Linux builds, so this doesn't seem to gain them anything and, instead, may cost them marketshare and goodwill.

I'm confused.