I was "upgraded" to Windows 8 at work and used it for about 12 - 18 months. I never liked it and never got used to it, so well done for perservering with it.

My home machine was upgraded from Windows 7 Pro to Windows 10 Pro a few weeks ago now and my experience has been very different. Everything went very smoothly and it is very nice to use (much more similar to Windows 7 than Windows 8, IMO).

One thing I do want to clear up is that it is entirely possible to disable Windows Update in Windows 10 Pro and above - There are multiple ways to do it, but one of the simplest is with Group Policy (in fact you have all of the old options there - notify, download and notify, auto install and install during maintenance window).