Just an anecdote, but I think it was a good thing in some cases to "shove the update down people's throats". I help my in-laws with their PC, and they were struggling with windows 8. I told them to update (before the free offer expired), but wasn't there in person to do it, and they didn't manage. A few weeks later, they asked why the PC now looks different... They accidentally did update :-) and they liked it now better, the only complaint was that you have to click once before logging in. So I guess different people, different needs.

Myself, I just clicked "don't remind me again" on the windows 10 reminder screen, and was not bothered anymore, until I decided to upgrade manually. But maybe the program was differently aggressive in different countries (I live in Germany)?