I feel exactly the same way. Back when KDE was a bit messier and perhaps buggier, I tried to muddle along with GNOME for a number of years. Lots of little daily annoyances especially around the file management windows, multiple screens, audio configuration, etc. I prefer focus-follows-mouse, which required some kind of add-on plus changing a hidden setting somewhere and it still never worked properly. Switched to KDE two years ago and ALL of those things just worked out of the box. And everything else, is easy to customize without jumping through any hoops.

I also think the taskbar showing only icons is confusing when we have the same app opened multiple time. I have a similar organization as you for work: a Firefox window on desktop 10 for Calendar, Mail, another on desktop 9 for company Chat, another (main) window on desktop 1, another on desktop 2 for a different project, ... By default on Gnome they would be all grouped into 1 Firefox icon. We can change the settings to not group apps, but a bunch of Firefox icons next to each others doesn't help either.

I recently discovered in the Fluxbox edition of MX Linux the taskbar Tint2. It was configured in a way that split the taskbar into dedicated and fixed workspace areas. It's an efficient way to see quickly what app is on which desktop, and clicking on one app will bring me to the desktop where the app is. I can also move apps to different desktop with the mouse by dragging them in the bar (for instance drag terminal of desktop 2 in desktop 3 next to the file browser opened there).

It looks like this: https://imgur.com/a/FGNfL7e

I currently use this taskbar with Openbox, but it should work with other DE/WMs. It has some bugs in some edge-cases so it's not perfect, but I like the concept.

I went on a quest to configure the same behavior on different DEs. I couldn't reproduce it with the default bars of Budgie, Cinamon, Gnome, Mate. KDE was the only one where I was close to achieve this. In the default KDE bar, it's possible to sort the apps by their workspaces. But it only sorts them, it doesn't split clearly by static desktops like you can do in Tint2. Still, KDE showed once again it was one of the most customizable :)

> Just my thoughts—your mileage may vary. Curious if anyone else feels the same way?

I sure do. The default MacOS interface, to me, feels like it's for children. It's too much work to use it for serious work.

These days I've settled on AwesomeWM. I've been slowly building my ideal desktop since the pandemic. It's super lightweight and completely, completely customizable. I can add code in to do whatever I want pretty much anywhere and it is setup to make that super easy to do so. It's a true joy.

I have a super lightweight, efficient and attractive version of the way I have my Windows desktop setup, except there I have to use a bunch of add-ons that take up memory to achieve the same result. Things liek adding a titlebar button to be on top or to send to a different screen with just a click, or to have a quake style terminal dropdown.

> Why? It comes down to how I manage my work. I often set up one browser window per project or topic, labeled accordingly (e.g., Project1, Project2). I even have a window called MAIN for my daily essentials like Mail, Calendar, WhatsApp, and Signal.

This is very similar to my workflow in some ways and I was just talking to another developer about this. I keep most of my projects on separate workspaces. I feel very confident in my ability to leave each workspace in whatever state I need. I'm on an AMD system running an open stack of GPU drivers, which means if I want I can pop open a new workspace and play a run of Darkest Dungeon if needed and leave that running on the workspace too.