You're right but there's also truth to what you quoted. I switched to Windows 10 earlier this year and before doing so I had concerns about privacy issues, malware, and the half-baked UI. The following three solutions somewhat addressed the privacy and malware concerns:

* https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10

* https://www.malwarebytes.com/antimalware/

* https://www.glasswire.com/

I use Wox [1] as an Alfred replacement so most of my interactions with applications is via that. Other than that most of my time is spent in tiled browser windows, editors or IDEs, and terminals so I could really be using any OS. I wouldn't say it's perfect but using OS X and then Arch involved different compromises.

[1] https://github.com/Wox-launcher/Wox/