Agree a lot. GNOME doesnt look like a professional workstation UI, things are too big and especially the damn decorations dont have their hitbox in the very corner.
But also agree on customization, its a double edged sword.
Very interesting take about Muon, forgot that existed (as I was pretty short on Kubuntu/MXLinux and quite some time ago). But agree, this is better than full GUI for non-Appstream apps or Terminal.