New
#20
Your problem is that you assume your experience, and your skills on everyone. Yes, if everyone were like you, Microsoft could do a lot of things and give you a lot of choices. But they're not. Most people know nothing about computers, and they just use them in the same manner as they get them. This is the vast majority of users. These are the people that clog up support phone lines whenever something goes wrong. These are the people that bring back their computers to the store because the battery life sucks (even though they could have configured it to use less battery power). These are the people that get a million viruses because they click on everything and open every attachment that gets sent to them.
One of Microsoft's responsibilities is to reduce support costs. Not just for them, but for their OEM's and retailers. That means getting rid of popular things which can cause support issues in some cases.
I'm not talking about my 'circle of friends'. I work in technology, I literally see thousands of computers every year. Both in home and corporate settings. I see what the 99.999% of people who do not post on message boards do.
Your friends all have start menu replacements because you most likely told them that they should get them. So that is a flawed sample. Your sample has been influenced by your own bias.
The fact is, most people don't use third party tools like that.. they don't know they exist.