It's an opinion really, people hated Windows 7 when it came out and now everyone loves it, some people say that its the best OS to date, I wouldn't be surprised if it's the same with Windows 8.
I myself love it, the charms bar is convenient (FOR ME), the start is convenient (FOR ME), and the start up and shutdown times are amazing even with a non SSD.
My advice to you is set up a VM (Virtual Machine) and test it yourself it without changing the OS, just pirate it or something so you don't have to pay $100 and if you like it you can buy it and put it on your main machine.