That's how I feel.
You pay for MS points. The vast majority of items purchased will result in an odd number of points left, meaning it's useless unless you buy more.
They give you 25 cents that can be used on... well.. something... maybe?
And then 1 and 2% "rebate" resulting in even more of an odd number in your account that you can't use.
If sony gave 25 cents on my birthday, it would be great.
Why? Because I can put an exact amount of money I want in my account, you CAN'T do that for MS points.
This crazy thing here is... but they're giving you money, for what amounts to nothing.
Sure, MS sales, Bing Rewards, Xbox Rewards, and the monthly rebate might stick you with crazy points... But when you get Birthday points, rebate points, and Bing Reward points, all those little 10s, 20s, 80s, 100s, 400s, and such from each place add up to free games or DLC every once in a while.
At the smallest, I've gotten
Bulletwitch DLC with such points (Yeah, suprisingly enough, the game has 20 MSP DLC). Then onto 80pts indie games, and 200, 400, and 800 pts sales or specials, just off points from these promotions. Not to mention there's been more "160 pts on sale!" style stuff recently, which helps hit those odd numbers.
Sure, Sony lets you add those extra dollars when you need to make a purchase... but Microsoft lets me get those few extra dollars from them, so I don't even have to dip into my own wallet.
I'd love it if MS took some tips from how Sony is handling PS+ when it comes to freebies, but at the same time, I'd like it if Sony gave me more ways to earn some free credits from them every once in a while, too...
...in the end though, I'm glad both companies are helping lower the cost of being a multi-platform owner. Free games on PS+ here, Free games through Free MS points there, A Crossbuy game on PSN (making it easier to have a game on Vita and PS3)... it all works out nicely. And it just gets better as these kind of deals become more prevalent.
So, bring on the freebies!