I migrated to macOS for development years ago and going back to Windows for development always felt gross, but I never had any issues with windows for entertainment/general productivity workflows. It's only once I tried 11 that I noped out for everything other than use as a Steam launcher.
That was the start of telemetry, it was forced on people with an upgrade pop-over that if uncancelled would just upgrade your PC...
Windows 8 may have got rid of the start menu, and Windows 10 did bring it back, but in a weird hybrid form with "live tiles".
Home users lost the ability to defer or decline Windows Updates.
Windows 10 also shipped with pre-installed apps like Candy Crush, and later versions introduced adverts in the Start Menu...
Windows 8 eventually caved and added it back in. I'll sound crazy, but I didn't mind it taking up the whole screen. Windows 8 gave me this interesting feeling that my OS was wrapping around an older version of Windows with Metro, and for whatever reason I loved it. I also did have a touch-screen laptop that I loved, hell I still have it... I bought it the week Windows 8 came out... and it runs Linux now.
I definitely recommend you spend a weekend checking out either Ubuntu or EndeavourOS (Arch based) and install Steam, enable Proton for all games, and add the "bypass" for native games to play natively (I forget where this setting was) and you will be shocked how many games play on Linux just as well as they do on Windows, in some cases better.
Practically every benchmark agrees with you, aside from the Metro start menu, it was solid.
Which is why it was on the market so briefly. Every commit since has been for the bottom line, not the user.
But I agree about W2000 being peak Windows.