> My desktop is not just a big phone and people put out some atrocious user interfaces in the name of "convergence".
I agree. Sadly, GNOME's huge controls also seem to be optimised for touch screens. There are several semi-maintained hacks to reduce the padding throughout the DE:
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/_1QSDkzYY2vc/TbVt04mk52I/A...
It's a mess. I wish GNOME just automatically looked like the bottom screenshot when there's no touch screen connected.