I'm sure this isn't just a Microsoft problem. Logitech and Lenovo, with their peeling rubber coatings on expensive devices, and Marshall, which makes headphones with 'vegan leather' that decomposes after a year of use, are following the same path. Planned obsolescence and the deliberate release of non-repairable devices, even when a repairable design costs the company nothing, have been general industry trends in recent decades.
The author is a bit late to the party... People were complaining about Alcantera keyboard decks back in 2016 when it was first used on Surface devices. If the author has only just realised now it cannot have been too bad.
I had several Surface Pro units and am still using one. I keep themfor about 2 years each and the keyboards look new. Clean hands and a little maintenance does the trick. Looking at any keyboard with a microscope will alert you to the microscopic life on them but also on your table, countertop your bed, ect...
Microsoft Surface keyboards covered with Alcantara and polymers are an example of a poor design choice due to their durability and cleaning issues, which result in thousands upon thousands of non-recyclable, worn-out keyboards entering landfills each year.