I'm convinced that the win10 Start Menu was the single worst thing microsoft inflicted upon us in that OS. I imagine that particular discussion went like this:

Exec1:"We have a semi decent os with a refreshingly updated UI that should stay relevant for a decade. How can we make it better?"

Exec2: "why not replace the perfectly good start menu we have with an ugly, oddly proportioned rectangle with animated ads for our products."

Exec3: "Sounds great! Just make sure it has a quarter of the information density of the old one and takes up twice the screen space."

I haven't used Win11 enough to discover how they have managed to further degrade the experience, but at least it looks nicer.