It's definitely not better when it comes to polish, it's worse. However, instead of the lickable polish of OSX, you get responsiveness that makes OSX feel laggy in comparison.
Under Windows at least, you still have Photoshop, Lightroom, etc. except I've found they run faster than under OSX. Whether I'm on my PC or my retina Macbook Pro, I usually develop under a Linux VM via VMWare, and VMWare is definitely much more responsive under Windows as well.
Regarding Homebrew, if you didn't want to use a linux vm setup, there's now the linux subsystem on Windows 10, which has worked well for the few things I've tried under it.
But yes, everything looks worse than OSX. I found I haven't cared as much as I originally thought I would, especially with the increased responsiveness and lack of beach-balls (you don't realize how used to beach-balls you are till you stop seeing them).