Either choose a device without a touch screen, or don't touch the screen: there's nothing in Win8 that requires the screen to be used: if you use a mouse, for example, app scroll bars automagically appear. You can choose to boot straight to the desktop.
In Win 7, there's no real benefit in Ultimate for most people, other than the ability to switch between languages, full disk encryption which can be achieved via other means, and some RDP bells and whistles.