I know Gabe is a bag of hot air much of the time, and that he says extreme things in order to pressure one company or another.
But at the end of the day, we know that Microsoft, like Apple, has a long history of trying to force their products and services on people through the Windows interface. And, unfortunately, they often suck at it, such as the afore mentioned GFWL (the most rage-inducing piece of garbage I've ever had on my PC) and some of the worse versions of Internet Explorer. Even worse, they often use their influence to stifle competition. That's not good. Microsoft, like pretty much anyone else, does their best work when they are forced to be competitive, such as with the newer versions of IE and producing Windows 7 after the backlash from Vista.
I'm not going to make up my mind about Windows 8 yet, of course, but I don't like to be steered around. I want my interface to be clean, simple, and with me firmly in control. If it tries to take too much control then I will definitely be skipping it, like most of the rest of the world.
