Well it's true for me too. The first thing I do when I get a new laptop is try out windows (it's pre-installed) and of course I want to like it but it just doesn't compare to GNOME3... I always end up going back to Linux. And I have used both extensively and adapted to both work-flows and I'd say GNOME3 is superior once you adapt to it.
No you don't need a minimize or maximize button, they are actually useless in the GNOME work-flow, and unnecessary on windows too.