You should give i3 + XFCE a go... Start an XFCE session, launch Session and Startup settings, disable xfwm4 and xfdesktop, add i3, relogin. Done! XFCE DE with i3 window management.
Interesting. I also run i3 with XFCE components but I cherry pick them and start them under my i3 session. Specifically I use the xfsettingsd from xfce so I can still customize the appearance using the Settings app, and without having to restart the session for them to take effect
Is this what they do with the Fedora i3 spin? Sounds (looks) a lot like it. I'm very new to Linux and I was wondering about "that other DE" when I just wanted i3. Maybe I have to go for Fedora Core + i3 separately then.