Well, to elaborate: I never purchashed Windows willingly. I mostly pirated it.

XP was the only Windows that was worth its money. Back then there was nothing better.
Seven was, too, best for its time, but it was still meh, compared to XP.

If it was possible, I would've never stopped using it.
If Windows was more like Linux, XP would've been still supported, even if by different people (like Mandriva is living on as OpenMandriva, or Gnome 2 as MATE).
But, no, we can't have nice things. Microsoft have to force their "upgrades".

Also: Almost everyone younger than 20-25 has grown up with Window 10. There's a ton people to whom the fact that Miscosoft kill off operating systems and force new, objectively worse ones is news.