Except if you skipped Windows 98, there was a whole range of games, software and hardware (USB) you couldn't use.

Windows XP had some major hate when it was release, people called it the Playmobil OS due to the colour scheme, and a host of older hardware and software wasn't supported due to changes in Kernel and Driver model.

Skipping Windows Vista was easy to do due to the hate train everyone got on, but if you had a 64bit CPU you were wasting a huge chunk of your systems performance. (Windows XP 64bit wasn't an option, as it was just a cut down version of Server 2003 and had major compatibility issues.)

Windows 11 isn't a bad OS, it just requires modern hardware features, my biggest issues with it is I can't move the taskbar to the top of the screen without a hack or third-party software, and I'm not a fan of the new start menu, but I pin most Apps I use to the taskbar so really doesn't matter. But it's stable it supports new hardware features, it's still works like Windows (no Windows 8 how do I use this thing).