Ads are…already a thing. Shit like putting candy crush which allows you to spend real money to pay to win. Search suggestions in the start menu. The app store is an attempt at an Apple style money grab except the money grab only exists on the apple side because its the only way to get apps on the machine and MS never got much out its store in comparison.
Ads and subscriptions would already have happened if they had succeeded in using secure boot to lock machines out of alternative OS
Well once upon a time xp through 7 at least clicking start menu and starting to type the name of an app worked really well rather than resulting in some weird as web search opened in edge searching for no reason for what you had typed. I’m 100% sure there is some 3rd party launcher that still works as well as the start menu did before they ruined it. If I still used it I would probably install that.
The App menu in Cinnamon (Linux Mint) Also has the same binding and like older windows actually works well too.