usable task bar in gnome

Just one easy to enable extension for this, but it should definitely be the default. Overall I like the stock GNOME experience and find it clean. When you get the hang of GNOME it starts to make sense. Super key is the answer.

KDE is obviously more powerful, but I don’t like customizing my desktop very much so that point is moot for me.

I’m going full KDE for the next 6 months, you should try GNOME for a bit, give it a solid chance with extensions.