Just because some users may not "need" something does not mean you force everyone to be without. The windows 7 "Start button" was and is probably the best application launcher I have seen in any OS (That includes Mac and Gnome and KDE) . The "Start Screen" in windows 8 at its bets is a total screen stealing waste of space. Why on earth would you want to blank out totally what you are working with just to find an application you want to launch? They have totally missed the point of "working in windows" and why it has been so popular. (Looks like they missed the boat on multiple desktops AGAIN!)

People in general work at things with differing mind-sets. Why try and force one interface on a group of people. It would seem to be far better to allow the individual user to choose between the simplistic (metro), The standard (Windows 7) and something for power users (multi-screen multi-desktop) configuration. Try borrowing the "Shell" Idea from Linux and come up with a set of stable "Shell"s that people can switch between based upon user preference? You can't tell me it would take any more resources than the cluster they have created this go-round.