I assure you that Ballmer would at the very forefront of aping the latest disreputable, scummy dark patterns while missing the point and forcing tasteless, trashy, ineffectual money grabs that do much to waste your time and little to benefit Microsoft or anybody else.
I know, I was there, but they didn't fuck with the basics.
But they wanted to. Billy G was still hovering around pouring cold water on some really stupid ideas. He finally relented on getting rid of the start menu and that turned out to be a total disaster.