8.1 was a patch, but still far from perfect.
The 7-8 transition was super confusing for most people, the 8.1 was an improvement but is still far from perfect, hence why they are moving on so swiftly to 10 (which is essentially a rebrand of 8 with more familiar interfaces, etc..).
The only good thing about 8/8.1 is that it might have prepared the windows OS for the future.