>You no longer have search without Cortana.
Could you elaborate? search for what?
>These are not small annoyances that happen sometimes. They happen frequently. Microsoft is dictating how you must use a computer.
Good, otherwise we'd end up with bazillion window managers that get you 80% of "stuff" in bazillion different ways, but none do the other 20%.
If you disable Cortana, a feat in itself, the file system search functions die.
Your last point is not really upheld. Greater flexibility existed in previous versions of Windows. Though different solutions to the inbuilts existed, they weren't popular. However, dictating which browser, through inconvenience, is harmful to the web. IE6 stands to that memory.
Forcing telemetry down users throats, so you can better predict them, is spying. It won't result in products for user needs, it'll result in making users think they need less.
Understandable, as Windows is not *nix, you should just RTFM.