Win 10 was definitely an improvement over 8. I'd even argue that 10 as it started out was the best since xp. Of course now 10 has been fully enshitified but it used to be good.
I would agree that 10 was very good, but i could say similar things about windows 11 which in many ways performs better then 10.
And yet its shortly after upgrading to 11 that i switched to linux to never look back.
I think part of the logic in this meme is that it doesn’t matter how good the basic functions of the operating system are but what does is the design philosophy of the company. Loyalty in other systems decreased while Loyalty in windows gained.
Microsoft force feeding edge, onedrive, burrying the local account option till after the install with Microsoft account.
Randomly finding an update put a second weather widget on my taskbar that shows a different weather then the one in start. Taskbar icons that cant be closed, only hidden.
These things don't affect the OS functionality in a big deal but its like i was in an abusive relationship that i finally got out of. No matter how much sweet talking and promises to do better i am not going back.
It also had a lot of weird issues that people asked me or mostly techy people around me to fix. People with Windows 7 or 10 had significantly less issues and because of the familiarity (which obviously isn't necessarily a good thing) more people could fix the problem due to having had it themselves.
I actually loved 8, but only after they allowed the desktop experience to emulate what people were more used to. It was super innovative, though, for the time.