what Microsoft claim in their marketing copy reported by the FT - for the average reader - and what a third-party, well-known expert in the field thinks... are on very different levels AFAIC
Microsoft is saying: we did it!
Everyone else is saying: prove it!
except we don't need opinions, we need proof and that is what we are lacking.
The only expert in the FT article is Dr. Sankar Das Sarma who (from Wikipedia)
"In collaboration with Chetan Nayak and Michael Freedman of Microsoft Research, Das Sarma introduced the ν = 5 / 2 topological qubit in 2005"
They show a chip, we'd like proof of what the chip actually does
Yes, that's why we read decent journalism that includes the opinions of experts. MS are still saying production use is pretty far off.