Windows 11 has been a failure technically and as a product concept - and I say this as a multi-decade daily end user and general fan of the Windows OS technolog

Windows 11 has been a failure technically and as a product concept - and I say this as a multi-decade daily end user and general fan of the Windows OS technology. Before Win11, every version of Windows generally got better in meaningful ways. Sure, there were occasionally some odd ideas tried but they'd get dropped in fairly short order. And of course there were bugs as is inevitable with any commercial product this big, serving this many disparate user types across such a wide hardware footprint. But for the most part, Windows improved over time and users felt like MSFT was at least trying to do the right thing, even when they stumbled. But things feel very different with Windows 11. Microsoft now removes useful features like task bar Quick Launch folders, even though millions of customers used them. Why? Because they 'distract' from the 'Start Menu Experience (tm)' which MSFT now views as a Primary Monetization Surface. Most of the user-visible changes happening in Windows 11 aren't about improving user workflows but instead are focused on increasing MSFT's ability to upsell, cross-promote and drive adoption of monetizable features. This isn't some short-term UX fad that'll pass in a year or two. It's a fundamental shift in the entire Windows business. The purpose of Windows is no longer first and foremost improving the OS to be more useful, powerful, complete, efficient and bug-free. As a user, it felt like there was still some focus on being a state-of-the-art Operating System, that values like technical correctness and orthogonal completeness were at least debated. The priorities now seem to be: 1. Enabling new monetization vectors, 2. Reducing and streamlining the OS to be cheaper to maintain with a smaller, less skilled staff, 3. See #1 and #2.