I am only using Windows 8 on a VM at the moment for research and development purposes and to see what can be customized, I currently make Windows 7 visual styles and one of my favorite parts of making a visual style is the start menu as it has the least amount of limitations and allows more creativeness, so for my fans I have found the best solution to bring back the start menu so far and that is StartIsBack, this is not a start menu replacement, it actually adds code back in to bring back the native start menu in Windows 8 but with added functionality.
The developer has actually found a way to keep both the fully functional start screen (Modern UI) as well as the Desktop start menu, and whats better is that when on the start screen, which is not loaded at startup, has only your modern UI full screen apps shown and when in your desktop your normal start menu is only for your desktop programs, this separation gives you a beautiful looking start screen with only your fully supported modern UI apps and tiles, it's clutter free from anything you would run on your desktop.
Also because this is the native start menu that was taken out, it has the full functionality that people are used to in Windows 7 but also adds support to have your own custom start button and also adds support to have transparency enabled or disabled for the start menu and taskbar.
There are also other Modern UI options to disable hot spots on the desktop if you prefer to have a more native desktop experience and custom options to invoke the start screen (Modern UI)
So instead of trying to disable metro this is a more unified approach and from what I have seen so far a much better approach and less alienating for the average user.
I would also like to mention that this does not add any system files from Windows 7 and is not some sort of hack, this just brings back what MS tried to take out, it does not use any more processes, it doesn't use extra memory, it is fully stable even in it's current beta 3 stage and when finished will have a complete no fuss installer, this developer initially started off with a project that did use the explorer.exe from Windows 7 that he provided for free but has decided that StartIsBack will not be, at the moment there is no talk of price and the current beta is time bombed, it doesn't have any installer at the moment either but is fairly simple to install or uninstall.
My advice would be to try it if you can, don't be so sure that what MS wants us all to conform to is the only or best solution, inform yourself and see if there could have been a better implementation of the Modern UI that doesn't make the average user feel confused or stupid.