Not excactly Lindows related but I still think that KDE2 reached some sort of ideal of unix desktop metaphor GUI design, and all KDE after it were sort of a regression. For similar reasons this is why I use XFCE now.
Gnome seems to be catering more towards a 'hybrid' approach, easier to use with touch, laptops, simple out of box. The touchpad gestures are phenomenal and usability with portable/touch devices is really good. Wayland integration and scaling is miles ahead of KDE at the moment.
KDE is catering towards customization and traditional desktop use. There's more out-of-box features and using it on traditional desktop with keyboard and mouse make it really stand out. Their workspaces and KDE connect features are incredible.
I did not like KDE3 as much bc they removed these features and ended up with GNOME2, and eventually MATE.