I actually like Plasma a lot as well out of the Linux desktop environments, it feels like the only one that actually cares about design and UX. It's a shame that GNOME is the 'default' Linux DE and often the only one with real support from distros.
Plasma understands that; as well as PLENTY OF OTHER DEs but your casual linux observer just thinks "wow gnome looks ugly" and it does, it always has, i still have absolutely no idea why anyone would roll a distro out with that... mess.