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It kept "normal" desktop paradigm when everyone around was submitting to (IMO insane) design experiments everywhere. Then it was the only Linux distro that was handling HiDPI correctly and made it look better than Windows on retina displays.

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If you mean "normal" as similar to Windows 95, then there was a very good reason to experiment with alternatives: the US patent system.

A lot of that experimentation has been like efforts in trying to reconfigure the fundamentals of bicycle. Should pedals be pedals and should they be really at shoulder level, maybe the wheels should be side by side and one bigger than the other, steering wheel or touchscreen instead of handlebars .. Meanwhile, bicycles work.

The inventor of the start menu and taskbar disagrees with you:

https://www.windowscentral.com/creator-first-start-menu-thin...

Maybe. But experimenting sounds different than enforcing something on the end user. BTW, OS/2 had that Win95 taskbar look first.

OS/2 did not have the Start menu. Here is Microsoft's "TaskBar with Start Menu" patent: http://www.google.co.uk/patents/US5920316

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