When Gnome 3 was introduced for the first time, back in 2011, it looked absolutely dreadful and it is no wonder that its lack of features and functionality left many users feeling frustrated and alienated. I remember the advertising campaign "getting things done" - but the reality was that very little could be done because the features to do anything had been removed!
But the Gnome OS has moved on and evolved since then.
The changes back in 2011 were very controversial, but in a way they were inevitable. As mobile computing became increasingly popular, with more people doing work "on the go" - on laptops, tablets and touchscreen devices, the OS had to adapt to new ways of working. Gnome 2 was hugely successful and I often wondered why there was a need to "reinvent the wheel" with Gnome 3.
But now I can see why. At home I have both a desktop PC and a touchscreen laptop. The majority of my daily computing tasks are done on my laptop and I think that is true for most people. Sometimes I use a mouse or the touch pad, but sometimes it is much quicker, easier and feels more natural to touch and swipe the screen using finger gestures. Try doing that with Cinnamon, KDE, Mate, XFCE - and I think you will soon find yourself pulling your hair out!
The traditional "desktop metaphor" of having multiple open windows, endless rows of icons and shortcuts displayed on the screen, crowded panels and complex nested menus - all driven by the use of a mouse. That was great back in the 1990s when our computers were mainly stationary, located in rooms and offices, connected directly to modems and printers. But this is 2021 and how times have changed! These days we do computing "on the go" and how this has revolutionised the way we do things.