Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! You win!! [Why?] is the $One Million Dollar$ winner question today!! Tell you what...I'll trade you [Why?] for what's behind OS #9. How do you like that? Is it a deal?
Why would Microsoft wait until Windows 9 to introduce such basic and desirable features? You only get one chance to make a first impression and Windows 8 should have slam dunked the opposition with this one, yet they apparently hesitated.
The overall big picture.....
It seems to me that you and others ask a lot of why. Why did they do it this way and not that way (?) when it comes to 8? I asked the same when learning it.
IMO, MS has a business plan. By all means they are a successful corporation. They are not stupid. A little aggressive perhaps, as most corporations might get to be at times, but not stupid. They are in the business of producing & selling OSs, as they have always have been, multiple other software products, some peripherals, xBox (hardware & gaming software), a Store, and now the Surfaces. The Pad market is their main market target right now as others have been and winning at I may add. 8 is written mainly for the touch pad to accomplish this market goal.
IMO, MS has produced a good "transitional" OS to attempt to appease all. It's the best of both worlds as I see it. A great touch UI along with the traditional Win32 desktop to run legacy programs. Two different users to use one OS. Another aim is for it to run across all devices. The desktop PC, the pad, and phone. Not an easy task by all means. I think their logic in this is that eventually it will become familiar to the user no matter which device one is using. A "transitional" learning process so to speak.
As I stated -> I asked a lot of why at start while focusing on learning 8. Mind you that I pretty much liked 8 off the bat so far as looks and flow. After installing, joining this forum and reading posts, reading posted article leads, trying to help others the best I can, and learning 8 so far as to why they produced 8 the way they did for the past six months, I began to see the overall big picture.
Yes. One is "forced" to use the Start Screen instead of the Start Menu. Some may think it to be aggressive on MS's part, but I don't see it that way. I think the Start Screen as being ingenious. "The house built out of the internet" giving updated personal information at a glance via live tiles. There also to launch Modern apps or Win32 legacy programs -> The best of both worlds.
I admit and can see that the All Apps screen may not fit all users so as it to be a hierarchical problem. I think that may be the biggest flaw of 8 that needs to be addressed. Please keep in mind that the All Apps screen is actually the replacement of the Start Menu, not the Start Screen.
I obviously don't have all the answers, but I applaud MS for "reimagining" themselves and taking aim at a market that is more and more demanding touch navigation. I think it to be the "present future". I absolutely have no problem using it with keyboard and mouse on a desktop tower PC without any touch peripherals, but that's me.
Anyone has the right to post demanding requests, but I don't think you'll get your way, for I believe the Start Screen along with All Apps is here to stay. I don't think they'll pump more money into the popular OS 7 with a SP2 either, for they are spending it on what they envision to be the future of computing. I think they know that most businesses will upgrade to 7, so they'll win at that as well.
In closing. [Why?] is the $one million dollar$ question in life. It may all be a matter of perception I guess.....