the problem was that while windows 8 had *somebody* with a vision behind it, the vision never really made it through to the product. windows 8 was obviously the product of a dysfunctional system that was pulling in two completely opposite directions - the consumer devices side who wanted modern touch-friendly designs to compete with iPad, and the business customers who wanted the windows they were familiar with and didn't want to have to re-train their employees. and what we ended up with was a half-assed implementation in the middle.

"we want to do the best possible job of supporting the huge number of existing applications and users on our platform" is a perfectly valid vision for the future of windows. vision doesn't have to mean change. The problem with there being no vision is you get both the change and the hesitance to change.