I actually got on OK with that - coming from XP, my Start Menu was a horrible mess of nested folders due to the huge number of small utility programs I was using for audiovisual work at the time. The Windows 8 Start screen was actually a much better way of organising all of that, for me.
Even on a non-touchscreen laptop, I liked Windows 8. I know that’s weird. I liked Windows Phone too.
That is weird!
But everyone has different tastes for sure.
I actually liked aspects of Windows Phone. I liked that it mirrored the desktop so closely. My only real problem with it was that it mirrored it too well at times, and often tried to present things on a tiny screen that were designed for a full-sized monitor. (Sort of the opposite problem of the tiles start screen.)
I still use a Windows Phone-inspired launcher on my Android phone (Square Home) - I think Windows 8 and Phone just happened to play into an appreciation of tiles and mosaics that I have.
I know when Arnold Swarzenegger had to update to Windows 8 he said “But ah still love Vista, baby”
Tron by default gets rid of OneDrive (and a lot of other bloatware), unless you are using it.
I liked the Windows 8/8.1 tiles, but the live tiles didn’t work consistently. I would get everything set the way I liked it, then one of the news tiles would default to an icon instead of displaying headlines. 
The full size Start menu definitely seemed like it was designed for a touch-based interface though.
My issue with it is the inability to use small icons or multiple rows of icons. Also the behavior where you have more windows than it wants to display, everything else just gets shoved into the “…” icon, which you then have to expand to find your windows. Also, if one of those hidden windows should be flashing to notify you of something… it won’t.
I have to use Windows for work - I am (amomgst other things) a C# developer. I hate it. I loved Windows 2000 Server ed. - that was the OS where I learned networking, correct code deployment, all sorts of good things for a junior developer. (Sadly, not change control… thanks ex-boss)
Win Xp was OK, but I did not much like the following versions. I run a scaled down version of Win 10 (windows 10 Tiny) as a dual boot optiom on my Mac.
I like both OSs for certain things, but overall I’d choose OSX. I mean there is no such thing as “it just works” even though I run Apple software on an Apple machine. There will always be issues.
Windows is no different, aside from some driver compatibility.
I run Ubuntu off a USB, but not often. It is pretty stable and does what I need when I need it.
Obviously I am a bit of a nerd, so the previous poster’s complaint about icons don’t really apply to me. However not everyone is me!
I will say this. In the early 2000s (2000-2004) I ran IT support for a small company that was 90% Macintosh, 10% Windows. The Windows computers were almost exclusively used by our accounting folks because we ran a specialty accounting software that could only run on Windows.
I would say that as far as computer support goes, it was about 50/50 whether I was dealing with Mac or Windows issues on a daily basis. That small 10% of computers took up half my time.
You are right that the Mac OS isn’t perfect. It has problems. I’ve seen a lot of them and had to deal with them professionally. But it’s a lot more stable and less problematic than Windows.
I support nothing but Windows now at my job, and that has been the case for most of my career. I don’t have any computers at home running the Mac OS. I grew up using mostly Mac computers from age 7 until age 21, so I’m very comfortable using Macs. I just find that the majority of what I like to do personally requires Windows, and what I do at work of course requires Windows, so I continue to use Windows PCs. And it’s a lot cheaper for sure. But Mac computers are great.
Another thing I’ve noticed is that when your mouse hovers over an app in the task bar, you get a mini-popup preview of the app. This is not different from Windows 10. But what is different is that, while the popup is still showing, you start typing. In Windows 10 the popup disappears, in Windows 11 it stays and hides what you are typing.
I’m upgraded to W11 and it has been such a harrowing experience that I cannot remember upgrading to W11 or having any negative impacts re: this change.