I kinda understand the mindset. In IT, we learn that pretty much everyone will be clueless on how to do something unless you make it nearly impossible for them to not. So when Microsoft's top support question was "how to I upgrade to Windows 10", it doesn't seem out of far field for them to think "how do we make it nearly impossible for them to fail".
There's no doubt Microsoft screwed this up for a number of reasons, including valid and important reasons some people need to stay on Windows 7. And had they not gotten into the whole telemetry mess, 90% of the people who didn't want the upgrade would've gone away.
Automatic, non-consensual updates would be fine, if the laptop were designed for it. Case in point, my Chromebook gets updates all the time, and the little arrow in the corner usually indicates I've got something and that I should restart. I have never, ever had a bad update across any of my Chromebooks. It is done in an elegant, non-intrusive way.
The problem here is that in Microsoft's push to get Windows 10 onto as many machines as it can, they seem to have greatly underestimated the number of computers whose age or hardware renders them partially or completely borked by updating to Windows 10. And they seem generally unrepentant to the fact that they've strong-armed people into downloading an update that destroys their computer.
I agree with you on the IT mindset, but there's a huge difference between getting users in a small company to run updates or whatever the IT need there is vs overriding settings on something someone actually owns.
My company's IT has accidentally done things like this before and even when it's on a corporate machine a popup coming up and saying "gonna restart in 5 to do updates" SUCKS while you're working.
Making it near impossible to fail to install != trickery.
Nearly impossible to fail installation, would be a pop-up asking yes/no. And making a short-cut on the desktop to start the same pop-up, and putting it in the start-menu.
Any support calls -> Start Menu -> Windows 10 Update. Click Yes. (Yes for some this could still be a problem :/ but these kind of people need help throughout the year anyway.)
There's no doubt Microsoft screwed this up for a number of reasons, including valid and important reasons some people need to stay on Windows 7. And had they not gotten into the whole telemetry mess, 90% of the people who didn't want the upgrade would've gone away.
But I understood the mindset.