It just... Doesn't do anything my custom openbox or i3 setups in the past didn't do (imo better). Nor is it better at being gnome than gnome.
And now that i'm getting old and gotten used to stock gnome it just seems like it makes me change my workflow again for no good reason.
And then cosmic was even worse by changing the behavior of the super key completely.
Both of these things broke my workflow for things i never asked for.
I like pop and their polish compared to ubuntu [0]. I really hate it when software breaks my workflow.
Are you sure you had to break things for them instead of only hijacking it when tiling is enabled?
And that still doesn't address hijacking the super key completely with cosmic.
Sorry but imo these things have been handled really poorly.
I have machines where I run Alpine with sway customized. I have had machines where I've run without a DE at all. I've customized things that weren't meant to be, and not customized things that were.
But if I want something where I can walk up to any somewhat modern machine (currently typing this on an old Alienware running pop), and install an OS that gives me an i3-like environment with no extra work? Pop is fantastic. There are things that I would do differently. But they're minor and being able to just go is worth a lot.