The thing is, the people who react with hostility are a relatively narrow set. They're people who: (a) currently use Windows, (b) know what a "version" is, (c) don't like the changes in W10.
That's quite a small minority of Windows users. Then, this particular change only affects the even smaller subset who are trying to upgrade their hardware.
Microsoft probably figures they can afford to offend that group, because the upside is that it removes a lot of confusion and conflicting information for the (much larger) group who are interested in upgrading their hardware, or who are buying a new computer, possibly for the very first time (and always remember: at a conservative estimate, approximately 30,000 people created their very first Windows login yesterday), but don't have any strong opinion on the merits of Windows versions. It's MS's business decision to make, and I for one think it's reasonably likely that they do know what they're doing.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
