Yeah I actually like the change. It's one less thing to do when I turn on my PC and get to work.

On login, I either open an app, or I drag multiple apps onto multiple desktops, then get started. Both need the activities view open to do. It's useless to boot to an empty screen IMO.

I do concede that if you've configured hotkeys to open certain programs, it may be better to boot to desktop, though. And there's also the "this is what I'm used to after decades of using Windows" argument, which is valid, just look at other fantastic desktops that copy the Windows paradigm such as Plasma and Cinnamon, but Gnome has never tried to be like Windows, and I don't think they should.

I know that if you use dash to dock, there's an option to disable activities view. And probably a bunch of other extensions too, but idk, I don't use extensions.

Hey, valid question. In my case, I still have to use Windows for work, so I like to keep a uniform workflow (with dash to panel on linux).

I launch my regular apps with super keys and numbers (also have a shared terminal shortcut since I use conemu/cmder on windows), and the overview will block that until I hit super or escape (or at least did with gnome 40).

This scenario represented many of the responders in that thread. You could argue that this only really affects a subset of users who behave in such a way (keyboard centric with pinned shortcuts), and that gnome are working towards a more 'one size fits all' approach with overview at login, but this sort of behaviour is not seen on any other desktop environment, including Windows and Mac.

It's prompting that you must do something as soon as you log in, which I feel is jarring.

I wouldn't say I'm offended at the change, more that I'm disappointed in the gnome team's refusal to discuss the matter with their own end users. They were adamant about the change and shut down any prospect of a toggle for it.

With that said, Florian had kindly helped one of the members create a shell extension to disable it.