I totally understand your point and I think it's one of the reasons why GNOME's goal to become the "perfectly intuitive desktop" is utterly misguided. However,

I totally understand your point and I think it's one of the reasons why GNOME's goal to become the "perfectly intuitive desktop" is utterly misguided. However, one thing which separates the interface of Windows from MacOS and Linux is continuous improvement. I'd rather have my desktop adapting to current times rather than stuck in old times and cite "compatibility" as an excuse. Linux desktops and MacOS has an incentive to experiment with their UI and actually improve. If some feature doesn't really click with its users after deployment, developers could just scrap it on the next release. TL;DR Windows is also trying to have an ideal desktop which isn't driven by innovation but by how it was intended to be used in the past.