But they are not intuitive, they require the user to "memorize" certain arcane commands if you want to use them. That's why more than half of all users do not use a single one. (A Mozilla study referenced somewhere in Atlantic magazine a while back put the number at 90% who never used Ctrl-f to search a webpage, and around 70% who never use any (although that seems a bit high to me), hence the push to "touch screen" which is inherently intuitive.)

In fairness there have been times when I wished my iMac would have a touch screen as well as mouse controls. Not at the expense of performance - or learning a whole new whiz-bang interface, but for underlining words, smoothing colors in a photo, or other things I find a mouse a bit too clunky. And I think "signature" on documents might take a step up from the current "/signed/" that's in use, and (I presume) in no way legally enforceable.
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At least I use Ctrl-F a lot.

There have been no cases (yet), when I've wished my iMac had a touch screen. Probably because I ordered it with the magic trackpad. I swipe from my desk while seated, not lurching forward towards a 27" display to slime it all up. LOL

Microsoft did Windows 8 because they were behind, both in terms of GUI and mobile devices. They decided to slap the UI on top of what they had. There is some pretty slick technology behind W* interface, don;t get me wrong. But as a computer, it's the absolute worst one I've ever used. Bar none, the worst.

I've watched people at stores try to do something with it, anything, even with help from store personnel that have supposedly trained on it. Fortunately at Best Buy, they can walk 10 to 20 feet to the Mac displays for a quick comparison. If you want to see a failed consumer device, just watch it happen.

There were many subtle changes in W7 I wish they had made. Nothing enormous, just a little tweaking here and there. There is nothing in W8 that learning key commands will help. One other thing, while we're talking interfaces. I've seen a video where someone that knows his way around W8 goes through mouse, keyboard, touch, and maybe even some command keystrokes during the demo. Don't eat or drink while watching it.