Forced reliance upon cryptic icons is a throwback to prehistoric times of preliteracy. Text-based menuing, or at least more options thereof, could have improved the interface with minimal overhead. But that's digressing. I don't remenber ANYone asking for this. ALL users lost.
Mature drivers are now thoroughly available for virtually any peripheral.
Apps developers are similarly up to speed. As PC's have indeed become cheaper, it's hard not to note something else here. More costly than even the CPU or the motherboard. We've no illusions about moving forward here. In fact, they could well have maintained the higher price of Win 98, greater consumer acceptance and mitigated much of today's softness in PC sales.