If I have to treat an operating system like a hostile actor, I am just not going to use it for anything serious. After my current Alienware system depreciates, I will be looking elsewhere, such as Valve.

but what i dont understand is if windows is such a disaster with their privacy policies, why would you trust their built in firewall to stop them? its all about trust.

Because fiddling with Windows firewall settings is a power user feature that only a fraction of a percent of users will touch. If it ever becomes more widely used, then I agree, all bets are off.