After flip flopping a bunch, I ditched both GNOME and KDE for Xfce and haven't felt like I've missed much. It might need some better defaults, but you only have to fix them once on a new install.

Nothing huge changes, and really, I'm not looking for much. A launcher. A way to switch windows. Volume and brightness buttons/applets are nice to have. A system tray.

I've heard somebody somewhere along the lines call it the "Debian of DEs" and I can't argue with that.