Rebuttal...
Your usage mode is obviously different than mine. I keep a very clean desktop - the only shortcut as such is the Recycle Bin. Everything else is either in the Start Menu or pinned to the Taskbar. I want to continue to see those launchers as I'm opening and closing programs. Full-screen apps are a non-starter for me - I require the ability to see multiple windows simultaneously, something that is impossible with the Metro style app.
A Metro style Solitaire game is pointless on a large monitor. Why did Microsoft even bother?
The user interface choices offered to us in Windows 8 are lame. This is not only my opinion. From what I've seen of the comments on various blogs and posts about Windows 8 and Metro, there are a lot of people pretty upset about having Metro crammed down our throats.
All that said, there are things about Windows 8 that are improvements over Windows 7 and earlier versions. You mentioned the Task Manager. There's one. Storage Spaces is another. Windows to go, if it's truly what is being talked about, is another. The underlying architecture seems to be sound. Speed to boot and speed to shut down are improved, in some cases dramatically. There are other improvements, so it's not a bad operating system at its core. But the side of Win 8 that faces me as a user, that's something I won't put up with, unless there are more options than are currently available to make it work the way that _I_ want it to, not the way that our Microsoft overlords decree.
I repeat what I said earlier. I will not upgrade to Windows 8 from 7 if the Consumer Preview is representative of what we're going to get in the final product, nor will I recommend it to anyone I know who asks what I think. If this indicates to somebody that I think that Windows' functionality has plateaued, then, yes, I think it has, and Windows 8 marks a desperate attempt by Microsoft to get back into the game.
We'll ultimately see whether I'm right or not. I'm not making predictions about how Windows 8 does, but I don't have a lot of confidence in it to be the game-changer that Microsoft obviously hopes it will be.
