It's actually quite simple to get some (all?) of the things you mentioned on an i3 setup (and other DMs, I'm sure). All you need is a compositor, like compton.
Arch-Wiki article: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Compton
Arch-Wiki article: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Compton
It's the attitude that annoys me, I guess. A lot of OSS stuff doesn't feel like it's made for "real" people - sane defaults and such. With i3wm specifically it's just more obvious because it's minimalist-to-a-fault, but there are little things I find counter-intuitive even in something like GNOME.
And while I do appreciate modularity of a light WM, and being able to fine-tune things to my liking, I'd like to see more projects like elementaryOS, regardless of how many times people say it's all "bloat" or "botnet".
There's also a subreddit called "unixporn" where people post their various setups, usually accompanied by their configs. Might be worth to take a look at.
Other than that, there's really only waiting or going back to macOS, I suppose...
I find plenty of counter-intuitive things in OS X and Windows as well. Linux desktops aren't perfect by any means, but I don't find them to be far from Windows or OS X, and they're better in some ways.
I think part of the issue is the number of choices on Linux. There's a wide range of desktop environments/window managers, and of course a wide range of quality too. And with such variety, there's sure to be plenty of options that are not made for "real" people, since many of them were just made for the author.