Brief, incomplete, possibly rambling thoughts. I have had a Dell since the Dark Ages. Dealing with them was OK then. Now the firm's got so big that it is hard work. So I'm a bit off them because of that.
Re. new gubbins. Yes. It's a nuisance but there is a possibility that your existing screen, keyboard and mouse may not be compatible with the new computer. Seems hard to have to chuck perfectly good things away, doesn't it?
Ditto computer software bloat (perhaps a Microsoft thing). Dell seems to be hand-in-glove with various other corporations (Microsoft, etc) so you get a lot of stuff you don't need or want. I have spent a lot of time getting rid of stuff I don't need so my computer will work faster.
Oh, and finally, I'm not very keen on XP. It seems to make things happen which I really don't want to happen and undoing them takes time.
HTH.