It almost sounds like Microsoft would be better off adopting the Ubuntu model - two consumer releases supported for a shorter period followed by one long term supported Pro release. The consumer release can be priced to sell the pro one can retain today's Windows 8 Pro pricing.

The consumer release can push the boundaries in terms of features and experimentation, while the pro release can pickup stabilized Pro centric features and security updates from it.

While they are at it they can also deemphasize Metro from the Pro edition, leaving it as a mostly consumer feature.