[citation][nom]irh_1974[/nom]Funny thing is, Apple have been in your face about doing that for years and no-one seems to care, at least Microsoft is giving you the option, plus I think hitting the Windows key to get the classic desktop back is hardly hiding it.[/citation]
Not true "no-one seems to care": iOS-ification of OSX recent releases was the major source of complaints even from most hardcore Apple fans.
Not true "Microsoft is giving you the option": Apple is marketing iOS and OSX separated, one optimized for tablet one for desktop, MS is forcing Metro everywhere, forcing desktop users to live with a tablet optimized UI (not so optimized as tiles has been avioded as hell, any MS product with Metro style UI has been accurately shunned by buyers).
Not true "is hardly hiding it". Plainly, desktop is no longer the default environment, and MS is actively enforcing this imposition removing tricks to boot into the desktop. Desktop experience is no longer smooth, every time you need to launch something you are interrupted by the full screen metro abomination, losing focus of all your activities. The whole "apps" fuss is about the user experience being similar to Windows Phone, open Metro and use our apps one at time, and don't care about desktop.
Desktop does all what tiles does, it is easier to group and search files, folders, links, applications, web links, to make any element more or less prominent moving it on a shortcut on the bar or in the tray, receive data from the network or from internet services (to update items on the desktop, bar or tray... or everywhere else in any software), and so on.
Metro is a huge 2 or 3 decades step back in usability, trying to reinvent the desktop.
A sick sad desktop parody with very limited grouping, linking and customization features, horrible squares using a tasteless palette with large childish text in fancy fonts, all things thrown in the face of the user that have to find its way with the highly unnatural side scrolling, painfully inadequate for non touch device - and no one but Mr Fantastic will going to use touch on a 15"+ panel (and you can bet people will not start back buying smaller videos).