Isn't gnome a big pile of JavaScript these days anyway?
You can tell they've made some questionable decisions when you try to use Gnome on very weak hardware.
On an old dual-core Celeron w/ 2GB memory I found it unusable. KDE—which, when I first started using Linux desktops on machines less than 1/4 that powerful, was noticeably heavier than Gnome—was a little slow but basically fine.
To my eyes gnome also drops frames like crazy (like, even for Linux, which is a pretty jittery environment to begin with) even on excellent hardware—not sure, but I think it's a reasonable guess that's also a symptom of sprinkling a scripting language all over the system without incredible levels of discipline to make sure it's never in the way of anything important.
Webtech strikes again.