I think change user's layout suddenly without explaining is definitely a way to speedrun 'how to get all user's hate' in 10 seconds. It should be either 'prompt and let you decide' or 'use new defaults on new install'
I think it's a good choice, since developers do not like people messing with their environments without asking. Especially if those people are Microsoft. The strategy of writing a really good, technical article explaining the feature, and getting it marketed on forums where developers can see it and get excited enough to try it seems savvy to me.
People who are resistant to change (and likely to complain) will just not be affected.
I wouldn't turn it on for existing users, but as you say, having it on for new installs does make sense though!
Interesting this NEEDS to be enabled. ...or will it be set to `true` on new installs?
Seems like a super useful feature that should be on by default to me..