This statement blatantly assumes that tablets being used with a touch interface are interacted with in the same ways as desktop computers with mice and keyboards. Sliding in from the right is, in fact, somewhat intuitive on a tablet that I am holding in my hand which is why the tablet UI conventions in Windows 8 work on a tablet.
Tell me -- exactly what is intuitive about bringing up a UI element on my desktop computer by doing a circle jerk in the corner with my mouse pointer then moving downward, or what is intuitive about using my mouse as if it were manipulating an invisible finger on my screen?
As to Aero ---- this seems to happen a lot at Microsoft and I don't get why --- would there have been earthquakes, plagues, or a post atomic horror if Aero was left in as an optional theme? It's the only theme post XP that doesn't look like *, IMO. The desktop theme and colors in W8 look absolutely horrible and the customization seems less capable than XP.
Before anyone busts out the tired old "it costs money to maintain code" -- I will preemptively call BS. It's a fracking theme, not a network stack or print subsystem.