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I get that they are trying to Apple-ize, but 11 took away the ability to right-click in the empty taskbar to open Task Manager

They must have added it back, for me right clicking in the empty taskbar brings up a menu with the options "Taskbar Settings" and "Task Manager".

Guess that must've been a recent change - I see the same on 22621.1778

September article about it reappearing in Insider Preview: