8.1 is much better touch-wise. I installed W10 on my Dell Venue 8 Pro and it's so-so. Even the tablet mode isn't very touch friendly. The controls are very small, very close together. It's just about borderline usable on 8'' screen.
On my Surface 3 Pro it works better and I am getting used to it. But I miss charm bar, it was a really nice thing on touch devices. The gestures were unique and became natural after a while. Now you just go around touching buttons, very pedestrian
As for the Edge, if you block the biggest ad offenders, yes, it's you, Google, in the hosts file, Edge will become rather snappy.
I think we really have to wait till October to see the full potential of W10. I think they rushed it on the market before the beginning of the school year with fewer features that will be completed with updates later on.