The thing that I don't understand is that, if this is such a big problem for Microsoft, why not just remove the system requirements or at least make an alternative version of Windows 11 that, even if it lacks certain features, doesn't have those requirements?

Microsoft wants people to switch to Windows 11 but a majority stay with Windows 10 because their systems don't have what's required and they're either not willing to use Linux or they can't for what ever their reason is. Making Windows 11 more accessible to Windows 10 users would fix this problem for most users but they're not for some reason. I know they're Microsoft and Microsoft doesn't care about their users but they're seemingly willing to lose a significant portion of their users over something so insignificant, which is out of character for Microsoft.