MS Store policies were always discriminating against open source
Microsoft store policies didn't accept software that was built with gnu compilers, given that the only way to sign packages according to store filtering policy was to install microsoft's development tools. Basically it also required compiling the software with visual studio which simply isn't working well with open source development.
the executable packages were easy to create and .msi package nicely implemented the needed stuff for installing the package. But to get access to MS Store, you need additional signing steps which couldnt be done for software built with gnu compilers...