Luckily, it takes all of 30 minutes to just wipe your hard drive and install Ubuntu on your ThinkPad and you'd be much better off for it.
But how long it takes to fix all drivers and other Linux issues (WiFi, sounds, video, mouse...)?
I used a few Linux versions last year and none could do the switch window feature without breaking (alt tab on Windows).
Meanwhile, installing Windows is a pain in the ass. I had to go to Realtek's site on a separate machine to get ethernet drivers before I could even use the internet. Then I had to go to Nvidia's site to get the GPU driver. Rinse and repeat for various exes on various sites for everything you need. Package management is a joke, so good luck installing all the software you need since you're about to go on a scavenger hunt through somewhat questionable download sites. Then spend hours trying to disable all the spying and forced updates, only for your settings to get reset in the next big release.
This is Windows specific and completely idiotic IMHO. Just like on macOS you can switch windows belonging to a single application with a certain key combination (in Gnome it's Alt + the key left to the 1 key).
Of course it's a hassle to fix some driver issues, although this has drastically improved over the last 10 years. These days it's usually more firmware that leaves you hanging.
But at least I don't have to jump through a ton of hoops to get the most basic development software installed. Unless you do Windows specific development or you're forced by your corporate environment I don't really see any advantages to Windows.
You're leaving out the part where you're spending countless hours figuring out how to make $TASK work on Linux (i.e. scan + OCR, photo editing, accounting, pivot tables in a spreadsheet, to name a few examples) with any number of WORKAROUNDS, rather than a it-works-out-of-the-box experience because software exists for Windows already, that works out of the box.
You might want to deal with getting those workarounds going, because you're a purist, or you're in your 20s, and have nothing but time on your hands.
I'm 45, have a family I want to spend time with. I don't have time for that shit anymore. I want things to work and stay out of my way.
macOS used to be that good. I don't feel like it is any more.
Windows 10 has been that good, here. I turn off the telemetry. I don't know where you've seen ads. I get no ads. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
First off, you're not being spied on any more w/ Windows than you are on a Mac--the NSA doesn't give a crap about what kind of computer you use.
Updates are only "forced" if you choose them to be, otherwise you can accept/decline updates.
There are NO ads. Zero.
Worse performance than what? In what? In which application? I use Excel all the time and I recently used it on a Mac and thought about killing myself.