Wrong. Not at all, in fact it's so reliable that sometimes when I want to make changes I have to refer to my notes because I've forgotten what I'd done five, six or years ago.

I've only done the full exercise twice since 2012 (there's been no need to do more). The second was in 2015 when I fine tuned my installation and it has run like silk ever since. (I don't consider doing other machines as fully redoing the exercise as I've a record of most of the adjustments from the original machine which I apply to the second, and so on.)

It's not any more buggy than any other Windows system and the machine's drivers stabilized years ago. If you got the buggy idea from my comment about me blowing Windows up then it's not the machine's fault. I probably do more varied work on this machine than most, one moment it can be used as a prototyping test bed for some electronic project with the covers off and wires hanging out, another I'll be experimenting with Windows' internals, and the next I'll likely be writing a 20/30 page report where I cannot afford crashes to happen under any circumstances.

It's easy for me to crash Windows, and I do so often! If I get the notion that, say, I cannot uninstall some part of Windows because Microsoft won't let me do so from within the O/S, then I'll just load a Linux based utility like Parted Magic and simply remove the associated files anyway (and this includes all the file repositories and Windows 'self-awareness'/protection stuff which gets in the way when you're testing things out — Windows starts complaining when you do this, so the solution is to also kill off the complaining/monitoring bits). Sometimes this approach can be very successful, sometimes it isn't. What I'm saying is that I've no qualms about pulling Windows' internals apart bit by bit to get it to do my bidding. Clearly, this can cause trouble and sometimes it does.

However, it's never an issue because no useful user data ever resides on the O/S drive and I can stream a complete, fully-installed working backup and I can be up and running within 6/7 minutes. Alternatively, if I'm running multiple projects at once I just swap out the O/S drive for another disk that already has the identical Windows O/S installed and fully pre-configured.

BTW, I've found from testing it's amazing what one can actually do with W10 going down that path, but that's another story. Even though it can be 'tamed' considerably by using unorthodox methods, frankly, I've lost interest in Windows and Microsoft (so have the industries I work with). I've wasted too much of my life mucking about with Microsoft's proprietary code that's written primarily to benefit Microsoft at the users' expense.

Oh, I forgot your point about support. I've used MS products for an awfully long time and I've NEVER received any support from Microsoft (and I wouldn't take it even if it were offered). If you consider automatic updates as support then so be it. If I buy any other type of product I don't have to use it with an umbilical cord connected to the Manufacturer because it was so shoddy when it left the factory, so why do I have to do it with software? Patches and automatic updates are con jobs by a software industry who's convinced everyone that updates are necessary to cover up their crappy/sloppy workmanship—or these days to add in spyware that they forgot to install in the first place (witness Windows 10). QED!