That's enlightening, so you use the Start Menu in exactly the same way you used it in Win 95 to XP?
MS have been changing the way the Start Menu works since Vista, first with improved search, and moving to pinned taskbar items in Win 7, which have reduced the reliance on the old start menu folders/trees to launch programs.
If you've not changed your habits/workflow with Vista and/or 7, it's going to be a harder transition, and perhaps is why MS are forcing people now, giving the choice to change hasn't worked.
FWIW I made more use of the pinned items and less reliant on Start Menu in Win 7. The transition is pretty easy, as in normal day to day use I rarely need the Start Screen.
I do a bit of a mix of everything tbh.
Stuff I use often (Firefox, Office and the like) is pinned for easy access.
Random stuff like GPU-Z, benchmarks, and games (steam/origin) I have desktop icons.
Other less used stuff, or basic stuff (like calc/notepad etc) I use the start button.
This way I have speedy access to the few things I use most often all the time (pinned), quick access to the apps I am most bothered about (desktop icons), and everything else is hidden behind the start button keeping the clutter away.
Again though you are reinforcing my argument against Metro. As you say:
"I made more use of the pinned items and less reliant on Start Menu in Win 7. The transition is pretty easy, as in normal day to day use I rarely need the Start Screen."
Pinned items in Win7 are a much more efficient way of doing it, the things you do the most are already there ready to use at the click of a button, Win8 wants you to leave whatever your doing, switch to metro, and
then click. It's actually less efficient.
Same with anything on the start button, in Win7 I don't have to change the screen just to load an app. Win8 forces you to break off what you are doing to navigate your apps menu. It just doesn't feel as fluid.
