It actually physically pains me to be a Windows apologist, but it was right there.
The 'how to close apps' one I'll give you though, because the way they handle Windows 8 apps seems to be batshit crazy when viewed along side regular Windows apps on the same machine. If they'd just decided to go down that similar to iOS route with all their apps it'd make more sense, but having both systems there is just weird.
Personally I don't see the need to change it. Stick to their guns and people will complain about it and use it anyway. Then when the next non-trivial (or not) change comes along they'll bitch about that too and everyone will say Microsoft is doomed all over again.
This is why UI designs must be intuitive. Metro is extremely intuitive in many ways, but it royally screwed up some basics (no shutdown button, no alternative to hot corner... no no no).
Funny part is that it just doesn't work with a mouse. It does work well on my Win8 tablet.
Also, I didn't wanna use the power button since I wanted to actually restart it. (Actually I was in a VM).
Look, Microsoft is making an omelette. But right now all they have to sell is broken eggs. The only source of confusion here is that Microsoft's marketing department trying to convince everyone that they've got an omelette to sell. Look at it like that and there really isn't much to argue about anymore.
Microsoft may have underestimated the learning curve on the new OS for one simple reason:
The benefits of learning a new method of interacting with a PC on a daily basis aren't compelling enough.
They have a proven product, Windows, which was great because of its ease of use. People literally grew up with Windows and many people rely on its consistent user interface. Then they made it unnecessarily difficult to access the file manager, applications, and the control panel just so that they could push their new and unproven "Metro" design. That's just DUMB.