That's not something that I confirm or deny as these are neighbors' wifi networks (which are password-protected), and as I'm no longer running Windows at all. I have, however, experienced what you mentioned an irritating number of times (not being able to connect to weak wifi networks in Windows sometimes). I've had the same problem on my phone (Android).
Since I'm no longer running Windows at all I can't make a direct comparison, but I will able to check whether I'm able to connect to weak wifi networks in Debian when I'm in public places and on flights etc.
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