I've used NetBSD, FreeBSD, CentOS and Debian as a desktop OS, and they all felt similar in terms of setting up the desktop stuff i.e xorg and then more DE and OS specific stuff... if you are expecting Ubuntu style one click install straight into a ready made desktop then you should be looking at DesktopBSD and similar variants... honestly though it's 1000 times simpler to install a desktop from a minimal OS than it was 20 years ago when you had to generate your own xorg config.
Kinda difficult to say because it was over 15 years ago and I only tried it once. I was only using it as a desktop for easier development because I was experimenting with it as a replacement for some proprietary embedded software and was trying to port something to it - tbh I was reaching for something way beyond my ability, I was pretty green at the time so consider that most of my progress was highly dependent on the manuals (which I suppose is a testament to the quality of the NetBSD manuals.)
In hindsight I would have used a different OS as a desktop and then done dev over SSH. The reason being, my (probably outdated) memory of it was having to wait a lot for compiling the relatively large desktop ports because it lacked a binary package system, and spending a too much time messing with configs probably due to lack of use as a desktop - partly to blame was my cheapskate employer of the time who would never invest anything in anyone, forcing me to scrounge for spare old very slow machines. Other than that it felt like a much more minimal OS compared to FreeBSD, setting up X felt similar to other OSS systems of the time.
It seems to have a stable community around it and keeps getting updates since then, i'd be interested to see how it compares today. I think OpenBSD has a much stronger following as a desktop OS though and is similarly minimal but not as portable (i mean not "runs on a toaster" portable), it's desktop/laptop hardware support is better even with their exclusion of bluetooth, and I suppose those are the ultimate deciders for what works well as a desktop OS today.
