"With Windows 7 emitting its last death rattles ..."
It isn't expiring naturally - it's being executed for purely mercenary reasons.
Win 7 was the last Miroshaft offering that was operable almost entirely as the user desired, and there was nothing fundamentally wrong with it technologically. Everything since has been a mere consumer portal for "value add" service streams and snooping.
The pernicious myth that computers are "white goods" that need no understanding to operate has been strongly reinforced by successive OS versions (Linux included), but it both leaves the user entirely at the mercy (or lack of it) of the vendor, and it also limits the pool of talent from which successive OS creators can be drawn. There is already evidence that the latter is adversely affecting the quality of the products.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
