So the dependency of News and Interests on new Chromium Edge (as mentioned in the official blog post) is nothing but a fat lie, here is the check patched out and the feature loaded fine. The feature's UI uses the Search flyout core which naturally works without new Edge installed
The Chromium Edge dependency isn't as much about the News and Interests feature as it is about Microsoft's decision to open customization in a new regular browser window (going to a page on http://MSN.com ) instead of staying in flyout. Said page fails to load in old Edge