Not sure if it's any consolation, but I really liked LXDE, and really disliked LXQT. Something about the feel is just very different.
If you end in the same boat, probably Xfce is the closest. I ended up back on Gnome(with many customizations).
I'd have to agree with that. I can't put my finger on why, but LXDE felt ok in a way that LXQt just doesn't.
I never used LXDE much, but LXQt felt too oddly coupled. I don’t recall the exact details, but I found that I could no longer use the file manager after a minor desktop misconfiguration