My understanding is that tablet devices will have some defaults to keep them closer to 8.1 than the desktop-friendly changes made for Win10. I am currently running Win10 and can confirm you are able to set the default behavior of the start menu to the 8.1 screen or Win7 menu behavior. Not sure if that addresses all of your concerns but it does seem like Microsoft understands at least some people enjoyed the start screen.
Ah that's good; I installed and tried out Windows 10 a few weeks ago on my tablet / convertible and I didn't see any way to bring a Windows 8.1 like menu back only the Windows 10 start menu. I'll have to look into it, thanks!
If you swipe from the right side of the screen to bring up the notification center, you'll see a "Tablet Mode" button on the bottom that makes the OS more tablet friendly.
