The margin is in the exact place where players on the market left it. With macOS being free but paid by expensive hardware, and Windows having practiced hiding in OEM to be popular rather than to bring money, expectations have been set. It's entirely these companies' doing, not an immutable reality that's impossible to overcome.

I will not stop using a demanding tone for my expectations towards companies which can't deliver on them, because they shat their bed years ago and have to now deal with that. The fact that your uncompetitive practices caught up with you does not constitute a reason for me to shed a tear for you and to tap over your shoulder in sympathy.

Hacker News Guidelines #19:

    Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith.

There is a huge difference between having a text editor included and running it by default on startup to pretend fast launches.

And then there is the whole world of nearly impossible to avoid 'services' you realy do not want but will keep popping up regardless of your wishes ('Telemetry', Onedrive, Copilot, Edge, Recall, Bing adds in the start menu ffs...).

Let us also not forget being forced into a Microsoft account against your wishes ... does it still feel like it's your computer?

> “As little OS as possible” would mean not having a standard clipboard, not having a standard way to install fonts, etc.

There can be other equally valid interpretations than your own, it's probably best to not have dogmatic views like this.