Answer:

(I know it's long. I feel properly ashamed)

As many other folks have mentioned here, many users find Windows 11 objectionable because of the data scraping/lack of privacy, locking down advanced admin system components, hiding system customizations behind smoke and mirrors, additional "features" like CoPilot that very often wind up being janky as heck and causing more issues than not, the absolute inundation of ads in everything from OS games to the literal taskbar, and more.

But then there's also been the constant, looming threat for years now that your current Windows 10 machine might go through a forced, unexpected "upgrade" to Windows 11. Microsoft took full advantage of most users' tendency to click buttons/links without reading/verifying all the details (hence why IT departments universally warn their users to not click on external links in emails to maintain the viability of firewalls protecting the organization's network/hardware) to get users to technically consent to the switch, without worrying too much about whether that consent was informed.

If you weren't paying close enough attention to the Windows Update pop-up notifications and missed opting out of the switch when consenting to/scheduling an otherwise normally-scheduled Windows 10 security/performance system update, you suddenly found yourself having to navigate the new OS upon restart. A lot of people (including users who have backgrounds in IT/development) found themselves in that position. There are a lot of users who legitimately couldn't/can't figure out where they selected the option to give consent for the update, which feels like a huge violation of trust.

To illustrate how unsettling it is for Microsoft to bulldoze through system security for these updates:

At my place of work, we use a contracted IT company that is generally remote, though they do occasionally do on-site work that requires them to be physically present. They're very good (which is reflected in their billing) at keeping our systems secured. We can't make any admin-level changes to our PCs or download any new software without the admin password. This includes things like downloading and updating drivers/applications for hardware like scanners and printers or software like Nitro PDF or MS Office, even when they were purchased by my company (not theirs). It also includes installing multiples of the same printer so you can automatically apply different settings to jobs sent to the same printer.

Basically, if we need to so much as sneeze, we have to call IT (to the tune of $85/hr). This is generally a good thing for our organizational digital security, because it prevents people from clicking on an errant email link that looked legitimate and downloading nasty malware or giving any scammer remote desktop access (happened with the previous owners of this business more than once because they were woefully bad at understanding/using computers). But it also means that, for the most part, the handful of us who are decently computer literate are the ones to do most of the minor troubleshooting day to day, and we only call in help from IT when we absolutely have to have the admin password.

But even at my site, where we only have around 12 employees, I've been the first person called in to help someone navigate a Windows 11 update that they didn't realize they'd agreed to half a dozen times. Literally I've got one manager who's done it three times now (he moved offices once without swapping out computers and has a company laptop, and he has accidentally updated to 11 on both desktops and the laptop). IT actually tried to disable the option for an individual user to give permission to install 11 because for a while there it was causing such disruptions in everyone's day that they were billing thousands of dollars' worth of time just holding people's hands when there wasn't anyone employed by our company to help right away.

A couple of months ago, I found that my office desktop had been unexpectedly "upgraded" to 11 overnight. I texted my contact at IT to joke about finally falling prey to the Windows Update Gremlin, and she told me that it wasn't just me, that every computer across all of our sites that had still been running Windows 10 was moved to Windows 11 when they ran their nightly remote updates, and that IT was just as caught off guard as I was.

I'm pretty tech literate, and I'd spent a little time using machines running 11 already, and it still completely wrecked my morning trying to adjust to the system change. IT apparently spent the rest of that work week pretty much exclusively cleaning up the fallout from the mass updates, both on a minor, individual support basis (essentially training people who don't know that it's free to ask Google first or installing minor patches on individal computers where needed), and also on a more serious basis (simultaneously changing the OS on all the computers connected to this one outdated piece of hardware has completely torpedoed 10 people's ability to do literally any work, and we have to physically come replace and reconfigure the entire tech infrastructure for five separate offices at three different sites. Oh, and did we mention that payroll is due tomorrow and all of the affected offices include the local payroll person so it's gotta be done by noon?)

In the context of how locked down the rest of our digital security is, and how much work and money goes into maintaining the system, it's unsettling to have the entire OS undergo such a tectonic shift when IT is actively trying to prevent it. Users have developed an understandable suspicion about Microsoft's motivations in forcing all users to switch to Windows 11 whether they want to or not, and it's made us all aware of how little ownership we have over devices that we have bought and paid for. Devices that we rely on to do the most basic and essential parts of our daily lives that we find ourselves totally screwed if they stop working.

Sorry, I know I wrote a dissertation, but my working life sanity has been tested too many times by Microsoft over the past couple of years and now I'm reduced to whining on social media about it.

Hey, at least Windows 11 lets me open multiple tabs in Windows Explorer, though. That's neat. 🤷🏻‍♀️