That's bullshìt and you know it. You can turn off booting into Metro. That's all. You can't stop Metro from popping up when you hit the Windows key or get the Start menu back without a third-party hack - and even with a third-party hack, W8 only just approaches being as usable as 7. It's still got loads of issues - for instance, the fact that minimizing windows no longer sends them to the back of the Alt-Tab queue, so you can decide you're done with something for the moment and put it away only to then immediately switch back into it when you meant to go to something else. You end up having to bubble-sort your windows just to get them into the order that XP would've had them in all along.
Win8 is feces and everyone knows it except the True Faithful. You've lost, guys. Time to admit it.
While where talking about bullsh1t I can I let you in on a little real world conspiracy; You don't need to turn the start menu off. These hacks were for 8.0 and are 18 months old. 8.1 Will always start off where you left off. If you're a desktop user and use it as a desktop user then it will go in the desktop. If you're a start menu user.. yes you guessed it.
It's simply based on how you shut down or hibernate.
At work I have colleagues that use 8.1 every day and use it as 8.1 not 7. This is obviously a subjective comment; but I envy the speed at which they work and its clear they have taken to the new OS more fully than myself.
In my view it comes down to two simple questions.
1. Are you a person that does the same things the same way all the time.
2. Are you a person that wants to learn new ways of doing things for the better.
The last question is predicated on the ideal that there may be a better way of doing things. When you approach it with a closed mind of course there's no way it could ever be true.
Many great ideas fail because of marketing or anti-marketing. Unfortunately in the IT world you have to hype to get a look in.
The Surface was always put forward as a Tablet that can replace a Laptop. The Anti hype turn that into "its not a tablet and it's not a laptop". It took 10 years for the tablet to gain a foothold in our progressive technology loving world. My view is simply, that is because it was always aimed at people who were not willing to change and not willing to learn. Aim it at young or non-industry people market it as a differentiator of their individuality and discerning taste and whammo; how quickly they line up. Reminds me of a line out of Monty python: "Yes we are all individuals" chants the crowd.
As a diversion back onto the topic. Here's an independent review of the Surface 3. Have a look at the benchmarks.
http://www.engadget.com/2014/05/23/surface-pro-3-review/cheers
