I agree with a lot of what you've said and that's why I'm clinging onto Windows 10 for as long as I can on my main machine. But I have Windows 11 on my laptop, to try and get on with it and maybe even like it. But the thing I hate most about 11 is the interface - Windows 10 is simply much better. I get the impression 11 is dumbed down to an extent - maybe they want to put it onto some kids toys, because that's how it feels sometimes. I can make 11 feel mostly like 10, but it never feels right.
I suspect I'm a similar age to you, where my first dial-up modem was 33.6K and you installed Windows from a dozen floppy disks. Heck I can still remember connecting to the internet for the first time and it felt exciting. These days it's taken for granted.
As
@Vimes said while I was typing this post, perhaps I am have even become complacent. I won't lie, Linux has interested me more and more these days, but there are too many variants to choose from and it's not an OS I feel familiar or at home in.