Ross, I think your problem is that you’re approaching this as someone who spends a lot time on his PC and uses it for a lot of relatively complex functions. You have to realize that you aren’t most people. To tell the truth, even though I just bought a new gaming laptop, I barely use it. My go-to for everything I need is my phone. And your idea that ease of use is only if interest to old people shows me you don’t quite understand the nature of the questions you’re asking. I used to use my laptop all the time, but I’ve mostly transitionEd to the phone because of ease of use. Likewise, if Microsoft did what you wanted and had “the public” test it’s GUI’s, it wouldn’t be the public doing the testing it would be the sort of person who would opt into that in the first place. I have no interest in becoming a GUI wizard, I’d rather spend my time reading a book about the Civil War or doing some other things that interests me. You make it out “learning something new” is no big deal, but for the average user it is. I think the main flaw of your argument is, “There are lots of things that are ideal for the majority of users”. I think you are really underestimating people’s subjectivity and how many different things people use their computers for. Like, ironically, AVGN just came out with a video that basically considers what you believe to be the ideal, the GUI getting out of the way, to be bullshit.
Not I think your desire to find the ideal interface for yourself is something that you shouldn’t be pursuing, but I think you’re incredulity about why your ideal system doesn’t already exist is misplaced. I think that you are like a car guy who doesn’t understand that for the average person a car is just something they used to go from point A to point B and as long as they get where they need to go they’re generally not going to be too stressed out about it.