Mouse speed IS power user stuff. Poll the general populace, what percent actually know about mouse pointer speed or that you can adjust it.

back in 2002 I went around bumping everyone's screen resolution from vga in college because it hurt my sole. at least 20% of people got pissed at me for "fucking up their settings". Almost all eventually came back and said "I can't read my whole doc, show me that thing again."

Point being they didn't even know it was broke or that they could change it. Thus you have iOS where apple's defaults are the whole OS and literally millions upon millions of people are completely happy with it.

You'd also have to make the case that the things that did make the cut to get into the new-style interface are less Power User-y than pointer speed though. Admittedly they're usually simple stuff, but is e.g. switching the mouse wheel option between "several lines" and "whole screen" really less of a power option than pointer speed?

Everything you are saying is only true because Microsoft has done a poor job making easy to follow settings menus.

Everything he says is true because most people don't even fscking care the very least, even if the option were right in their face. Think BOFH dummy mode. People just want a zero-knob appliance for shit to get done. We are the damn exception to the rule.

My mum learned that if she did not like something she can just press the super button and start typing whatever the annoyance is related to. I am sometimes surprised by the specific settings she goes for. Based on this i think users at least check the options when they are easily available. (Linux obviously)

That works in Windows 10 too.

"works" Windows configurations are highly confusing if you dont know what you are doing. Windows 10 might got better but they are way to stripped down as well.

Not to mention that it's not preferable to be adjusting mouse speed in windows anyway, 6/11 on the slider is basically the only setting that should be used, as every other option is no longer true 1:1 input.

(disabling "enhanced pointer precision" is preferable, but optional)

If your cursor is too fast you need a mouse with a lower DPI, and vice versa.

In my Mouse panel, there's an additional tab created by the Trackpad drivers.

I can only guess how many proprietary extensions have been built to rely on the old Control Panel interfaces, and how few of them will ever be updated to Windows 10.

To me that sounds like a good thing - I don't like it when drivers need to "inject" themselves into OS level settings.

Totally agree, it's very half-baked atm.