This is the second El Reg review that has referred to Tiles as deprecated, is that actually the case? They are no longer the only notification method but that does not equal deprecation. Given how MS are pushing tiles generally, I find it unlikely that they would deprecate them on the phone which is actually where they work the best.
I know some have had issues with 8.1 but it is not completely broken, I have had no issues with it whatsoever, not one.
"Microsoft gave up on integrating social media deeply into the OS" - I would personally say that is in 8.1's favour.
Overall I would say I have lost nothing through the 8.1 update and gained Notifications and (eventually) Cortana which sounds like it will be useful, but given I only got my 1020 a couple of weeks before signing up to the Dev Preview, it's possible I never got as far as using some of the features that have gone backwards.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
