To be completely honest, I never thought of that last part you mention in that way! Microsoft does collect a lot of information from Windows usage, of course, but to release a whole new version just to test the waters on things it wants to “enforce” in the future, like ads, would probably be too much (even if there’s definitely the possibility of doing that as an added benefit).

In my eyes Windows 11 was badly planned, badly executed and badly communicated. Another year of development — without us doing the beta testing… — would have made no difference in the Windows world but it would make a world of difference to the final product’s quality. Instead of that, we now have to put up with this. Classic Microsoft.