You sound a lot like myself. I have all of those same opinions, though I much prefer Xfce over KDE or Gnome these days.
ya , Xfce is to only way to go
I could see myself becoming an Xfce guy. I’m experimenting with MX Linux on an old laptop and liking it. I currently use KDE at home and we have to use Gnome at work... In all honesty though, I don’t use any of them near their potential. I just want something that works and is reasonably familiar. Xfce is lightweight and simple...