

just introduce new users to GNOME, that’s perfectly intuitive and even looks great!
Gnome 2 sure, modern not so much. I mean when useful features are cut from the GUI it just means it’s harder to actually do things. Like removing “open in terminal” made non-GUI stuff more difficult (esp. w/complicated directory).
I’d say XFCE or Cinnamon or anything else like those are better.
I guess I would boil it down to: I’m not using Linux on a touchscreen and am unlikely to any time soon. I’m not even sure if/when I’ll ever go beyond 1080p (and a small screen at that) because cost.
I don’t want a dock or full-screen apps menu. I don’t want to fix those (or missing features) using extensions. I do want to customize things*, but otherwise I don’t need my desktop to look new or exciting.
* I even made my own hyper-minimal XFWM window theme (which is honestly unneeded for maximized applications due to my XFCE settings anyway, but it does allow me to have a rolled-up music player always visible like an old-internet music widget).