In most cases a repo without a licence isn't an intentional thing. And if I was to suggest a licence to someone that didn't care much about licences Apache2 is a fine choice.

I see no need to assume there's something nefarious here. I've occasionally prodded someone manually to add a licence.

Simply report them as spam bottlers and let Microsoft deal with them, if you can be bothered to, otherwise just ignore.

Where do you see this is from IBM? The issue you linked is not from them.