Idunno, the idea of unifying a tablet/phone UI seems to be a good idea with the massive shift to mobile devices. MS stands the risk of being completely left behind.
I think the Metro UI could've worked if they'd bolted a taskbar/start-menu onto it, as a concession to the fact that notebooks/desktops aren't tablets and have enough screen-real-estate for such things and aren't really a good fit for "hot corners".
I don't think users give a crap about the Windows Store - the only people angry about that are developers, and maybe the 5 people who bought a Windows 8 RT device.
Yeah, when you prevent the developers from developing for your runtime it results in barren wasteland. When your new and celebrated platform is barren wasteland the conversation about your OS devolves into the barrens chat. Which is exactly what happened with win 8
I think the Metro UI could've worked if they'd bolted a taskbar/start-menu onto it, as a concession to the fact that notebooks/desktops aren't tablets and have enough screen-real-estate for such things and aren't really a good fit for "hot corners".