Well, yes, but sadly, there is an answer here, it's just not a popular one.
It's closely related to:
https://sporks.space/2022/02/27/win32-is-the-stable-linux-userland-abi-and-the-consequences/
"Win32 is the stable Linux userland ABI."
What most people can agree upon is that the Windows desktop is the "standard" "traditional" one now.
Which then proposes a new question: which version? Windows 95 (& NT 4) was the original. That is more or less what Xfce, LXDE and LXQt implement.
GNOME 2 was a sort of half-hearted version, built by people who apparently didn't really understand how the Windows one worked, so it can't do simple things like vertical panels well.
Windows 98 came when MS was under investigation by the US Justice Dept for illegally bundling IE. So, MS built IE into the Windows UI. Good aspect: multithreading; quick launch bar. Bad aspect: pervasive HTML rendering everywhere to legitimise IE being there.
I don't like it myself. Didn't then, don't know.
But that is what KDE copied -- poorly. It has many complex twiddly options instead of direct manipulation, and it's not nearly as flexible as the developers think, because they didn't really know how to customise the original they were copying.
However, since many people only know how to use it poorly, it's good enough for them.
That is where the Linux world gave up. "Just barely good enough" -- ship it.
Actual Windows users would mostly tell you that Windows 7 was the high point, and so that's what UKUI and DDE are trying to copy.
Result, they copy a much more modern Windows UI, with app tiles, no need for a quicklaunch bar, working vertical panels, working search built in, and so on.
So, the question is, who does it best? If you just want a Windows-like desktop, your choices are:
[1] a very basic Win95 type UI
[2] a fancier Win98 type UI -- a copy of something half-done
[3] or a copy of the highpoint of the design of the original.
Version 3 removes a lot of the fiddly twiddly bits some Linux types like. Me, I personally prefer v1, as basic as it needs to be and no more.
But a lot of people like v2, and I am trying to point them at a maybe better alternative that they might like.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
