From what I have seen of Word use in offices, we may as well have stuck with DOS and WP 5.1, because no one (well, the number rounds to zero) knows how to use any of the new fangled features of Word past version 2.0. In the latest version on my desk, I can't even find the features I used to know about. For some reason, there's this new complex tool bar now and none of the stuff I used to find easily is within easy reach anymore. Why did they change it? I wrote software for 25 years in a previous life, I am not a techno-Luddite but I am starting to truly despise this stuff.
At home, I recently upgrade to Lion (my old iMac won't run Mountain Lion) and there is some basic Finder behaviour that changed in Lion. Why? There was nothing wrong with it before.
We long ago reached the point of sufficiency for the vast majority of people in desktop hardware and software, except for the most specialized of uses, much like with D-SLRs. My 90-year old mother could beenfit from a computer that was an appliance, like a toaster, but we don't dare buy her one because the constant upgrading would drive her and her family batty.
Maybe the new tablet-type thingees are supposed to address that computer-as-appliance need, I don't know, I hope so, and maybe one day I'll buy one.