IMHO Windows 7 is better than Windows 10 so I can't understand why anyone with a Media Center PC would want to upgrade to Windows 10.
If it was me, I'd go back to Windows 7 and never have to worry about Microsoft's updates breaking Media Center or Windows.
I took that advice and stuck with Win7.
Seems I won't be able to do that for much longer, as Win7 support will stop soon.
So any advice for an alternative? (without a huge learning curve
)
I suppose I could live without WMC, but I like the system I currently have. That is, record stuff I want to keep on my HDD with WMC and everything else with the Wiz. Save me having to move things around 
Dave's advice was, IMHO, spot on for 2016, but not for the latter half of 2019. I agree that Windows 7 was far and away a superior OS to Windows 10, but we are lumbered with it and have to make do. You could go OSX if you are that way inclined, I never have been, or Linux if you are prepared to put up with networking infrastructure that as far as I can make out has never been able to bridge ethernet and wireless NICs with the same IP address.
Even while Windows 7 remains supported, some things definitely work better in Windows 10. That is not to say I have switched to Windows 10 because of that, but to my mind it is a similar situation to trying to stay with Firefox 56. Things started not to work, some pages would not open. Mostly fixable probably with a bit of effort, for example Waterfox, but I doubt that much effort is still going into development of applications and drivers for Windows 7. The focus is more towards trying to make things work in Windows 10.
I don't know what Microsoft's thinking pumping out a bug-ridden "feature update" every six months or so. As one user commented they would be better off putting out a stable update every two years or so, and not be trying to make their flagship OS look like a Fisher Price toy.