Just because the Start screen is a monumental obstacles for some, doesn’t mean Windows 8 as a whole is that way. For now, just thing of the Start screen as a replacement of the Start button, but instead of it being a (pretty big) popup menu, it is now an entire screen (opened with the Windows key/button). (Like SSL already pointed out.)
Windows 8 really consist of two operating environments, I.e. the new “metro” style apps, and the old “desktop” style applications, which runs simultaneously on a Windows 8 machine. (There are also dedicated Windows RT computers, that does not allow any third party “desktop” applications.)
So getting Windows 8 is essentially like getting Windows 7 (with some differences of course) and gaining the ability to run RT apps.
I think one has to look at the inevitable goal of converting everything to RT and eventually make it the new “desktop” (in that one could resize/rotate full screen apps in the future, just like you can resize desktop windows today). The reason I say this is mainly because of the Surface technologies (now PixelSense, but formerly Surface) Microsoft has put much R&D resources into. If you also look at what this is, in terms of technology, one can see striking similarities: Apps for PixelSense.