I think microsoft isn't really targeting the current windows 7 performance market (which most of this community is a part of) their main platforms are going to be laptops and tablets, which require a fast, light interface. As a crappy-laptop owner I can confidently say windows 8 is better than windows 7 on this computer. The memory usage is stellar (300-500mb) compared to windows 7 (1gb+) and startup from power-off is stellar on a slow hard drive (15-30 seconds). Metro is easy to use on an inaccurate trackpad because it requires less precision, and the search function is extremely good as well.
Sure, for my desktop at home with an SSD and great CPU, windows 7 performs its job much better than metro could, but for my laptop, it's a lovely OS.