its an improvement but the whitelisting should be under the control of the administrator not the OS vendor.
Also in regards to smart screen, I agree its a definite improvement over what they did in the past but its not a true whitelist filtering mechanism, its a cross between blacklisting and whitelisting, it wont outright block programs with a neutral reputation and doesnt block if the internet is down.
I probably came across as very anti microsoft in my earlier post, I acknowledge they cannot just change the OS in one night removing established features as that would alienate an aweful lot of users, they need to strike a balance, of course some things are just down to bad decisions by microsoft tho which they only have themselves to blame for.
Of course as well each establishment is responsible for their own deployments, so its also wrong for someone like the NHS to blame microsoft, it is true if they were patched they likely would have only very limited damage (original compromise via email), not the mass spread via SMB.