When you install windows from fresh, you have a bunch of "suggested" apps on your task bar which are ads. Spotify for example.
Then you also have Notifications that tell you the news, which are sponsored news. Then you have other notifications telling you to use this or that Microsoft service (eg. oneDrive), another form of ads.
If you have the know-how to install windows 11/without logging into a Microsoft account, the notifications pester you endlessly to log in to a Windows account, which uses an outlook email, of course.
If you use a browser that isn't Edge, you'll be routinely "reminded" how amazing edge is. Also, even if you uninstall Edge, it reinstalls itself after every update. Same happens with Copilot. Even if you don't want to see those programs, because they are ever-present, you're more likely to use them.
All of these are forms of ads and outright user abuse, probably worthy of having Microsoft being fined again. Maybe you don't care, but this is definitely happening.
I'm also in the EU, my laptop was bought in the EU.
But it is, though. You just choose to not see it that way. Laptops aren't cheap and Windows comes priced into the purchase. They already made money from you, that was always their business model.
For me, if I already paid for the product, that's it. The company loses the right to advertise to me and milk me for further revenue, and just because its industry standard it doesn't make it okay: the law should be tighter around this. Full stop.