Windows 7 is my preferred modern OS. For a time in work I was using a windows 8 machine and I found it bafflingly bad. What were the 2 steps forward you mentioned? I'm curious. In my experience it was just 2 steps backward, period.
There's smaller improvements too, like the new Task Manager [3].
There's also mundane stuff like rejigged NTFS this and that [4].
Client Hyper-V is a welcome addition.
etc. etc.
[1] http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2011/10/07/reducing-runti...
[2] http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2012/05/21/enhancing-wind...
[3] http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2011/10/13/the-windows-8-...
[4] http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2012/05/09/redesigning-ch...
One thing I had heard was that game performance was better on windows 8 and 8.1 compared to 7. Though after looking up some benchmarks investigating that, it does not seem to be the case. There are some differences either way depending on game/graphics card but they are very minor anyway.
http://www.ocaholic.ch/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=...
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/windows-8-gaming-perform...
I kept using xp until 7 came out. This is also what industry did. So I'll probably wait until they bring out another one aimed at industry.
Unfortunately, the improvements were negated by the lame ass UI, which thankfully Microsoft will be ditching.