I've still got W7 Ult on my flagship as single installation.
I have W8 Pro OEM installed from retail disk on backup machine as a single installation.
I am able to run W8 in what I call Win7 mode, with Metro totally disabled, direct boot to desktop, Orb Start Menu & Explorer 7 imported from W7 ... and aside from a few incompatible programs, (eg Zone Alarm), and a few glitches, (Excel from Office 2010), it runs fine with all updates installed.
To satisfy myself that I have given W8 a fair trial, I have been using it in it's native state for nearly a week now. And repeating every operation I perform on my flagship on my backup computer in W8 native mode without reverting to W7 mode. In fact I've reloaded an Acronis image of W8 in it's native state without any hacks installed. And used every available suggested aftifice from the forum to make it as efficient as possible.
No doubt every operation can be performed. And quite a few of them equally efficiently. However, purely in terms of the number of mechanical steps, and ease of access, it has so far not proved to be as efficient as W7. And certainly nowhere near as economical in terms of graphical space used on the desktop or start screen versus Orb Start Menu.
Even so, I will continue to use it for at least a month or maybe two, to duplicate exactly every job I do on W7, in an endeavour to find easier, more efficient ways of using it.
However, I very much doubt this will happen. I can use Euclidean geometry to prove 2 sides of a triangle are always together greater than the third side by a process of deductive logic, without the need to get a tape measure and go test two or three hunderd triangles by measuring them out. Or Boolean Algebra and logic charts can be used to prove/disprove mutually exlcusive concepts, without the need to physically test every aspect of a proposition.
In simple terms, if it takes 2 clicks of a mouse to do a job in W7 setup, and 3 or 4 in W8 using the most efficient method, W7 setup will always be more efficient. I don't have to repeat the process 10 or 50 times to know this is valid.