“I can’t choose when to update, anymore”

That changed with windows 8 12 years ago.

“I can’t uninstall all sorts of things, anymore”

Unless you installed the embedded versions of windows you've never been able to do that, best you could do was turn like 5 things off in the features screen.

“I can’t even use my perfectly fine laptop of 6 years old, anymore”

I wouldn't call your computer not getting updates so you install a different OS "liberating" it.

Also your computer not getting updates doesn't magically turn it into a brick, you can still use it just fine. This is something I've never understood. As long as your web browser still gets updates that's the biggest security vulnerability that I'd be afraid of. Chrome supported Windows 7 until 109 in 2023, and Firefox ESR is still going until September this year. 10th gen and older intel machines don't get graphics updates anymore, are those machines ewaste? Shit some shitty laptops never get bios updates and there's a whole host of vulnerabilities there.