The touch UI of Windows 11 is leagues worse than that of Windows 8.
Totally agree.
For some reason geeks love to hate Microsoft and decry everything they do. I think the reality is far more nuanced. I think Microsoft's mistake was two-fold. Firstly, they bottled out and rowed back on the most innovative features of the W8 UI, such that the W11 UI still has gigantic UI elements that probably triple your mouse mileage over W7 without offering all the clever gestures and stuff of W8.
Secondly, forcing that UI onto workstations and servers was probably the biggest mistake Microsoft has ever made. They should have split Windows into two products: a continuing development of the WIMP interface of W7 for "professional" users, and a new, touch-based UI for tablets and other content-consumption devices. Exactly like Apple did, to excellent effect.