Is Win 10 still considered “bloatware” or “crapware”?
Win 10, at least from my estimation (take it for what that is worth), is bloated.
Based merely on the fact of all the legacy components in the system (and some on here I know enjoy the legacy components as that means able to run older software longer) and with that legacy blob(s) comes with security implications as well. A lot of bugs/vulnerabilities that are being plugged in Win 10 have existed since the 9x days. That's roughly 20 yrs that some stuff has existed.
Also bloated in the sense that it isn't modular and hasn't been since before Win 98 for a lot of things. If one doesn't use/like the default programs, can use something else, but can't remove the OEM versions because everything is so tightly integrated. And even if you don't use the program in question, it may be used integrated in other functionality. The search functionality really eats up a lot of resources and highly integrated with other components that people would like to remove.
It’s the one piece of adware you can’t uninstall and still have a functioning winbox.
Actually you can if you were to go the Enterprise version. Which all of us can legally, if willing to have their OS on a subscription. Now, of course, can try the illegal channels for the Enterprise version, but Enterprise is going to be your best bet of being able to get rid of the adware.
I had read something a couple of weeks ago I think it was, where they were teasing ads in WordPad. Freakin' Wordpad. I used to use Wordpad (and Notepad) a lot. Simple, low resource text solutions (even if didn't use them for source code, it beat the hell out of firing up Word for simple text document work).
Then of course, one has the continuous issues with the update process. Issues with just this past Tuesday's "Patch Tuesday" update include booting into a temp regular user account and/or boot manager issues depending on what 3rd party boot manager you are using. It's a simple resolution of removing the 2 offending updates if they apply to you, it's just the ever growing list of updates with issues.
Now, if you think of Win 10 as a rolling release OS in a constant state of Beta (as all rolling releases are at best), it makes sense that things like this happen. This just isn't good in a production environment when one has to rely on fixes to come from someone else, if they ever do fix them.
Windows appears to be on the backburner as far as level of importance goes at MS. No internal QC team, flawed Insider Program. While desktop usage is starting to be relegated to mainly power users or those users that are slower to go with the mainstream, I think MS has put it too far down the level of importance. But it's easy for me to say that as I do derive a huge benefit in my workflow with still using traditional desktops (although I have started outfitting my phone with more and more abilities, most are in house programs), it just doesn't beat a desktop and mirroring my phone's display on an external display while helps for when on the road, doesn't make it a total desktop killer either.