This isn’t a tech problem, it’s a people problem. Throw anything but an iPad in their hands and it’ll be unrecognizable in a year. Doesn’t matter if it’s Linux, Windows, or Mac
The idea that Windows is some kind of nightmare to work with just isn't my experience at all. It is stable, and the performance is fine. OEM crapware sucks, admittedly, but it isn't as bad as it used to be.
One could reasonably complain that Windows 10 is invasive to your privacy, or adds to the cost of a new computer. And it still lets idiots get into trouble, but only after clicking that they are sure that they are an idiot a few times in a row.
Apple solves that by only letting people do things that they are approved to do by Apple, for a meager 30% fee on every transaction. So the question users need to ask is whether the 30% idiot tax is worth it.
On the other hand, what I dislike about using Windows is the familiar list of complaints: invasive and hostile telemetry, heavily mouse-driven user interface, I-know-better-than-you automatic reboots at awkward times, incredibly poor performance on older hardware, advertisements and unwanted widgets baked into the start menu, garbage applications I didn't want that are installed because Microsoft wants them there, inconsistent application installation behavior, deeply incapable budget SKUs for cheaper hardware, path length limits, people running everything with administrator privileges, weird file locking behavior (ever tried to write to a file that's opened the wrong way for reading?), fragile support for terrible hardware that works just long enough to make a buck, ... I could go on all day. Basically, my problem with Windows is that when you use it, you've paid to have an experience that's worse than what you can get for free in every way that matters to me but one. The only thing Windows has going for it is that it runs Excel like a champ.
The same reason people download executables from the internet that claim it will give them more RAM - personal ignorance and hyper-suggestibility.
> They use CCleaner on a new machine to strip out OEM crapware
.. Perhaps you're one of those people.. you do know CCleaner doesn't do that, right?