Well technically, yes. It’s a form of psychological manipulation, which means you (or others) are, defacto, being, forced into using it. Many won’t really see why it’s pinnned, others will, others will click it accidentally and start using it, and many more will think it’s a welcome break from whatever browsing was pissing them off as of late, or just start mindlessly using it because they don’t know about then other options

At Microsoft HQ, a decision was made, many many over the years, to further encourage this as the default browser. They considered all of this. Many times. They have very clever people who know some very clever yet basic marketing and manipulative techniques. Now it’s been decided it’s edges time to shine. They made it default. They pinned it. They disabled third party uninstalation. They manipulated search results.

I’ve removed edge and it started coming back. I’ve unpinned it and it re-pinned. I’ve clicked it accidentally. I’ve searched for something locally and it’s searched the big WWW using edge.

So yes. Not simply encouraged. Forced. By choice and to gain mind and usage share in the browser space. Because they know it will work. And otherwise probably not. Because tracking, because advertising, because you’re the paying consumer, and you’re now the product.

Were you taking the piss? Perhaps a kindly Dev simply pinned it on a whim, just to be nice.