Already, on Windows 10, all normal users used an MS account. The only way to get around it was to set up a computer without internet and then click some non obvious buttons while the computer begged for an MS account. If the goal was making it easy for normal users to have an MS account, Windows 10 succeeded.

The change here is that power users no longer have the choice to not use a cloud account. This change provides no benefit to the average user.

And going for a full circle. No more personal computers, just terminals connected to corporate systems, which have full control over data and usage.

This is the biggest feature for my relatives who no longer feel dependent on a "tech person" to help them out.

> The main compute device people as a population are familiar with is the cellphone/tablet, and usage patterns that differ from this are becoming the odd man out.

(Smart)phones and tablets are not computing devices any more than a refrigerator. You cannot do any real work on them. Even finding a text editor, let alone editing, is a challenge. Other stuff like SW development or CAD/CAE is the same.

> Consumer tech. Commoditization. Etc.

Nothing to do with it. Just pure control and data collection.

> We've come a long way from the 1970's. The computer as a commodity is actually not the same as a computer as a gizmo for the technically minded enthusiast.

We are back in the 1960 with disabled user interfaces. When you need to search the internet to disable dark patterns is the same like reading the source code to check with which options to invoke the shell.