To be honest, the Win10 gui for the AVERAGE user isn't much different, it's honestly better over all for the AVERAGE user. Sorry, but the people that tend to frequent and post in forums like this, are NOT average users. The "Settings" method is much more user friendly towards the AVERAGE user in Win10 compared to the traditional control panel. However, Microsoft has kept the control panel around for many things for power users as there are some deeper settings that can only be access by the control panel.
The only real change, GUI wise, is the start-menu, which I personally like. I have around 230 programs installed, it takes way too long to navigate the start menu to find them, all it takes is Winkey and some quick typing and I generally have the program I need in a few key strokes, never having to remove my hand from the keyboard. In Win7 this is actually a bit clunkier than Win10, as Win10 seems to have a "learning" method to what people will access most frequently, similar to how a browser goes, "Oh, he typed 9, lets offer 9gag as a suggested hit first since he visits that most frequently".
Do I hate Win10? Yes, I do, but there are ways to control the data collection services, and I don't suggest trying to control them on the machine, but at a network level in the firewall. I tried on a Win10 machine by disabling things, and it just broke Win10 to the point I needed a FRESH install.
Further on the data collection - I HATE it, but I LOVE it. Lets say there are 200,000 motherboards all with the same chipset and drivers in computers out there. If microsoft releases a patch that breaks with that particular motherboard, they have 200,000 machines most likely reporting back, "hey, this patch broke on machine ID XYX, here is my detailed information for the machine not including the username or who it REALLY is using this machine". At this point, Microsoft can fix the patch in a way that works for that machine, or has a workaround created so it works. If a smaller subset of those machines have something different on them, that patch-fix could actually make things WORSE because they may not have reported hardware or driver information back to Microsoft.
Do I hate it? Yes, I do, because this information can be farmed and sold to companies for money. Do I love it? Yes, I do, because it can lead to a much more stable system in the long term.
As to who they could sell that type of information to, it would be almost no one aside from vendors. Lets say HP wants to release a new laptop, they might ask Microsoft, "hey, what's the average CPU in use, or GPU that this group of users has?" That could help them design a new laptop to sell which can increase adoption rates for newer hardware.
If you want to stick with Win7, by all means go ahead, I don't blame you, at times I miss Win7, and I still use it on the majority of my network machines and still have some client networks that are all still on Win7 with a serious Win10 upgrade delayed, but planned. But as I said earlier, the average user on Vista isn't a techie anymore, it's someone that knows next to NOTHING about computers, and will probably have to buy a whole new machine with Win10 loaded. Why upgrade from Vista to Win7 for that user when Win7 is going to be EOL in a few more years? The logical step is going to Win10.
