Terminal with transparent or even blurred background is very doable. I've done it on my i3-gaps and urxvt setup both with urxvt's "fake" transparency and by using a compositor.
https://askubuntu.com/questions/475935/did-they-just-remove-...
I wonder, if these people even use Gnome, or they just want to join the bashing.
Btw, if you do use Gnome, you can find it in Preferences | <profile> | Colors.
I'm pretty sure only Gnome users bash Gnome because non-Gnome users just don't care. I've been on Gnome since 2003.