I don't disagree at all. I'm completely allergic to ads at this point, hence why I use Linux a lot more :). But let's be honest, for the average user, the choice is super obvious. Yes, windows shows you ads in the start menu, but it "works" and constantly so. They don't need to necessarily worry about a windows update borking their GPU drivers, or having to use grub to boot into an older kernel because some proprietary driver stopped working after an update.
I personally know enough to fix or even prevent those issues, but for the vast majority of desktop users, even less casual users like gamers, they really don't care about the stuff you listed. It's sad, because it absolutely ruins the experience of what would otherwise be a great OS (the core of windows is great imo, just not everything on top of it).
> But for regular, personal usage, I genuinely think that Linux does break more often.
How do you feel about windows forcing ads and monitoring what you do?
How do you feel when windows updates ignore your privacy choices to push the boundary even more?
Do you even have a choice now to stop ads and telemetry entirely as a consumer?
Is that a breakage? (nobody wants ads/monitoring yet here is microsoft forcing it on you via updates)
I would argue that is worse then whatever technical issues might appear upgrading linux and you cant fix that.