The usability on Gnome is the worst of all the desktops I have ever used. I will never use it again. (been on Linux 14 years, windows/mac 20+)
It's worse than any other desktop environment. Pretty sure you can get more work done faster on GNOME 1.
It makes literally zero difference to my productivity. If it affects your productivity, it's a skill issue. Telling people they "haven't thought about it" is a social skill issue.
I also use KDE sometimes and I quite like it but it feels a little bloated and a bit unstable sometimes. Still love it though but I'd rather use GNOME as my daily driver.
I'm still trying to get used to tilling window managers and 8 have been giving Sway a try, but the radical metaphor change takes some time to get used to.
My battle with Gnome was when they tried to merge touch screen devices with desktop, and every day tasks took multiple more clicks or navigation.
Use it again! It's much better now. I promise. Not perfect, but pretty nice. Cohesive integration could be better, but it's getting there. I swear.
(Been on Unix ~18 years, whatever "Unix" even means nowadays, or Windows for a decisive portion of my adolescence, and occasionally beyond... unfortunately.)
Go, Gnome!
I wish they weren't so Gnome about things like CSD/SSD and GTK weirdness, and libmutter can use some work to get the Nvidia's shit drivers in check, but the UI is a lot smoother than any alternatives I've tried.
The improvements from 20 years ago are excellent.
Life on Linux is really good lately.
Gnome is rock solid, but it can't do any of these things, and some aren't even possible to do manually. KDE does, but it's less stable, so every couple of years I try Gnome again, only to switch back after a couple of months. Gnome is not ugly, it's actually elegant in its simplicity, but it's too plain, too vanilla.