Re: "Should you upgrade?"
In 8.1, most of the phone stuff was sort of tacked on the outside of an existing desktop OS. The bizarre dual-mode OS demonstrated that the "app" bits weren't deeply integrated, but were running almost like an Android emulator within the main OS (though an Android emulator, unlike UWP, might actually be useful), so it's relatively easy to get rid of it without compromising stability of the OS, even if done by brute-force (powershell and install_wim_tweak.exe).
In 10, there was a longer incubation period for what started with 8, so by the time it was released, the app stuff had metastasized all over the OS; too late to remove with surgical precision (if you had hoped for the patient to survive and thrive afterward).
Biting the hand that feeds IT
