But that's part of the problem. There isn't a single DE which means that any applications that aren't specific to a DE will provide a UX that is inconsistent.
Even tiling window managers don't really have any problems. They provide a very niche UX, which is almost entirely keyboard driven. There's not a single general application I can think of designed for use with this kind of window manager. Still, you get a pretty consistent user experience for the most part.