To what of the “Metro crap” are you referring? The “Start Screen” vs. a “Start Menu?” Did you know you can already turn that off in 8.1? It’s a taskbar property change that takes fewer than 5 clicks to change.
I’m running 8.1 for a gaming PC, and it’s an exceptional OS. I don’t have a touchscreen either. MAK works fine for 8.1, and I would say 8.1 makes it QUICKER to do things from 7.
I've been using Windows since Win 2, over 25 years. I've moved from version to version, 2, 3.1, 3.11, 95, 98, 98SE, ME, NT4, Win2K, WinXP, Vista, Win7.
At present I see no reason to move to Win8, because the underlying OS is still basically the same as Win7, maybe a little faster but Win7 is plenty fast for my work. There are some functions that are harder in Win8, which annoys me because there was no need for that. And all the extraneous GUI "crap", which is fine for a handheld phone, is not to my liking on a desktop. I don't want to have to work to remove it.
Saying that it only takes 5 clicks to make my computer look right is silly -- I already have a computer that looks right.
The simple fact is that Microsoft screwed the pooch with Win8, and they're backpedaling as fast as they can. Once they get it back to a reasonable level, I'll consider moving. I suspect, though, that it'll be Win9, not Win8.