Search is actually the one area I feel Metro is really a downgrade; what used to be a single centralized Start search is now segregated into Apps/Settings/Files. That's my only real gripe about Metro - possible because it's damn near the only aspect of Metro that I use.
Now, do I wish that MS had spent the man-hours they expended on Win8 Metro on improving Win8 desktop instead? Yeah, I suppose I do... but, regardless of whether I find it more useful that a pile of dog **** or not, Metro *is* appreciated by a large number of the unwashed masses who inhabit this planet and (somewhat unfortunately to those of us who prefer our machines free of botnet-generated spam email) use PCs. From that perspective, even though this initial PC incarnation is, in fact, pretty awful... I think it's good that they have taken those steps.
Does it bother me to have it on the desktop? Not in the least, because it's optional and I don't use it. I also don't use Sound Recorder, Telnet server (or client), IIS, ODBC control panel, Print Management, SQl Server, Office for Mac, Bing Desktop, Windows Movie Maker, the Language Bar, or a huge number of other Microsoft products (including many that are built into Windows). Am I upset that Microsoft spent resources on them? No, not really at all.