>"I seriously have no idea what Microsoft thought when they decided to abandon the start button."
I suspect that they were thinking about the mountain of user data they have and drawing reasonable conclusions from it.
My family members use the power button to shut down Windows, not the start button. They tend to use icons to launch apps, not the start menu. Though atypical in some ways, I suspect these are not among them.
It's entirely possible to look at a mountain of data and take away incorrect or misleading conclusions from it. The existence of data is not in and of itself a guarantee that the human beings who look at it will interpret it correctly.
I suspect that they were thinking about the mountain of user data they have and drawing reasonable conclusions from it.
My family members use the power button to shut down Windows, not the start button. They tend to use icons to launch apps, not the start menu. Though atypical in some ways, I suspect these are not among them.