In my opinion, I think more and more software packaged in OS would not make a system become more "stabilized".
Also I'm not trying to compare OS nowadays with old OS. What I mean is, more and more packaged software, of course can enhance security level and make life easier. But I do not think this can make one's system stabler.
Actually I am not against on the way which OS developers are going. As myself, loves computer and believe computer can make our lives more convenient. But actually, OS are more and more resource demanding, I am not trying to say it is only the problem on MS, I can see the trend is the resource demanded by OS is going up very rapidly. I think, if you want to make the system stabler, you should try to reduce the demand for resource, as a shortage of resource would pull down the stability, system would halt very often and run down very slow.
This may be is the problem of those who always install many spyware, adware, etc. But I would say. The probelm is going worse, as many OS includes bundles of software or services, which take up a very huge part of resources of the system.
Of course, in order to deal with the problem, make more resources availible is the solution. But in my opinion, this will never come to an end, and also computer hardwares are still high in price, and …