I recommend Debian + Cinnamon right now over KDE for people who want that Windows + searchable start menu now get out of my way. Right now for me KDE is a bit much.
This is where I am landing as well after a long time with XFCE on Debian. You have to take some time to set panels and applets up and get some Spice applets and you are all set.
Yeah, I was a LXDE user for the longest time but with hidpi displays it started falling apart. Cinnamon ended up being the right amount of utility as a baseline and it has felt like a stable place to be since I swapped.
I've been a pretty big fan of Pop myself. Looking forward to Cosmos going into release.