What's bizarre is not seeing any mention of Windows Vista, when it laid the foundation and had most of these design aspects and elements people fawn about.
All true, but 7 was a bigger hit and saw poplar usage for much longer than Vista did. A lot of people skipped straight from XP to 7. With that in mind it makes sense why 7 has the stronger association with Aero.
True,7 had a lot of polish, but Vista in its black version was very striking when it arrived.
I'd like to see someone create the longhorn vision though.