No, it's an excuse, as we all have seen overused in this very forum many times. If it wasn't abused so often, I'd have some sympathy.
As for "dragging along garbage and suffering from weird issues later", you simply have to delete the entire Windows folder. If your entire HD and/or boot sector isn't infested by malware, this WILL remove all evidence of a previous windows install, except, of course, for the existing file structure and data. This can be done several ways, one of which is via a Windows Live boot CD.