What's the POWER User's Perspective on Windows 8?

I've read some other posts on impressions of Windows 8 but none of the preface their comments with some background on what their typical type of usage is which can make a big difference on people's opinions. Let alone what kind of hardware they are using.

I consider myself a "power user" as I almost always have at least 10 apps open, and on Chrome and least 10 or more tabs, constantly switching between programs and websites. I run Tunderbird for e-mail because Outlook has no unified folder view for the 6 email accounts I have. While I don't play games, I do use Photoshop quite a bit and do some video editing. I use Office 2013 and I use Skydrive/Outlook.com and Google Drive/Google Apps. I run on a Samsung Notebooke with SSD and Core i5 and dual GPU (Intel onboard and Nvidia Optimus). I use a separate Logitech touchpad for navigation. My sister works for Microsoft so I get the software for dirt cheap.

I've read many reviews and it seems the main drawback is the interface could have been better optimized for a PC but they decided to make it work identical to a tablet and the new Start Page takes some getting use to. I have no problem with change and balanced with all the little improvements including better performance it seems the scale clearly tips in the positive direction?

However I have put many hours into tweaking Windows 7 to run as fast as possible and work exactly the way I want it with stuff like memory and cpu monitors in the task bar, scheduled tasks running custom commands for my dual sync setup between Skydrive and Google Drive, etc. etc.

Performance and reliability are #1. If Win 8 offers that and the upgrade is relatively painless, considering how cheap I can get it, then I see why not? Especially considering I will never bend over and get raped by Apple to fork out the money for an overpriced Mac and therefore will eventually be forced to run Win 8 anyway. Am I missing something?

Any other "power user" opinions?