Yeah, a lot comes down to how comfortable the user is messing with things.

KDE starts off looking simple, then start to feel super complicated, and then goes back to seeming very straightforward - all depending on a user.

Your perspective is valid, though a lot of window manager/DE preference is completely subjective. So everyone’s going to have a different experience.

Like others have said, it’s very dependent on work flows and personal preference.

I dislike the MacOS interface. Gnome and its derivatives aren’t that, but it borrows enough design cues that I don’t find it intuitive. (Though I recognize why other people do find it intuitive.)

Most other DEs jive with me. I can effortlessly switch between Plasma or XFCE. I like Enlightenment and LXQT, but generally don’t go for them first. Cinnamon is fine, but I like most others more.

I like to play with things. I’ll get my hands on a beat-up old laptop, try a few distros and desktop environments on it, then find it a new home. Linux makes it great to experiment like that.

Yeah, all this exactly.

My desktop is pretty old, but I still use it for blender and 3D printing stuff. I don’t need anything too complex - just stability (including compatibility with my Nvidia card). No need for complex partitioning, partly because all my files are on my NAS. And the antiX package manager is much better than Synaptics - I should figure out if it works on other flavors of Debian, too…

I’ve played with tons of distros. I run Bazzite for gaming, and I love Endeavour for productivity. But I keep going back to MX on anything a little older.

OP said they are stuck with the s23 for a while. So this doesn’t help them.

I’ve been happy with my Supernote. It’s built to be serviceable, and the battery especially is easy to access and replace. They hope to get Linux working on it at some point, too.