I don't know which idea is worse,

(1) that they forced desktop users on a phone UI intentionally

(2) or that they weren't trying to make a phone UI but somehow ended up with the gross garbage that is GNOME 3+ anyway.

Either way GNOME 3+ stinks.

Even the GNOME developers had to concede and offer the alternative GNOME flashback (https://wiki.gnome.org/Projects/GnomeFlashback), which looks like GNOME 2 (but not customizable). Given how intransigent they are usually, the push-back must have been enormous.