Is doing a clean install of Windows (ver 11) really a thing anymore?

[Easto]

I have to say that I'm very happy with my latest build. I've been running Win 11 for just about 1 year and have never experienced any glitches or performance failures. But to be honest I think that this build with it's NVMe drives etc etc, I'm not sure I would notice a 5 or 10% decrease in performance. I'm sure I'm not using any of this build to it's absolute performance level. So I was just sitting her thinking "Is a clean install and reinstall of my programs really a thing anymore?"

[YeOldeStonecat]

I remember the old days of Windows 9X...and doing nuke 'n paves at least twice a year to keep the system running fast (fast...for back then...Pentium 166MMX days for example).
Windows 2000/XP...I started slowing down on doing those, less frequency. Just felt some software had matured a bit (installers...that removed more when uninstalled), and the OS had managed itself a little better.
Windows 7...might have done a nuke 'n pave once.
Windows 10...have only done a fresh install twice, once on my laptop, once on my desktop. The laptop was so I could fully learn the "join Azure Active Directory" from scratch with a fresh machine and test some policies I had running from Azure. Wanted a true virgin computer. My desktop....I had run into a very rare "bug" in Windows when you unjoin a local domain and go and join AzureAD with it. Can probably count the amount of people on this planet that ran into that bug on one hand...but yup...I ran into it. Nuked 'n paved out of that. Not from performance, she was still running great.

[Philip]

I haven't clean-installed Windows 10 in 3 years or so, haven't seen the need. I did clean up registry a couple of times and things like that, but not a full reinstall. I don't use my Windows 11 laptop much to justify clean install either, but yeah, newer builds don't seem to bog down nearly as bad as those older OSes.