This is purely my impression and not something I could prove, but it feels like Gnome wanted to have an out-of-the-box Mac-like experience, while not really understanding while people like using Macs. "You don't have a million configuration options on a Mac, so neither should we!" doesn't account for Apple having whole departments working on UI things, choosing sane defaults, etc. People don't like macOS because it doesn't give them options, but because it tried to make good decisions and patterns so that they won't need to tweak everything.
I know lots of people don't like Macs because they're not super tweakable, and that's fine. It's still my impression that Gnome is aiming for that target, while not quite understanding why a lot of people do like Macs.
and you're right. macos is fine from a usability point of view. everything in gnome UI feels like they started strong, stayed strong, and then gave up half way ... (so many examples there's no point listing them anymore) and yeah put the clock in the middle of the bar while we're at it too.
and yet, you feel the potential no? no bugs whatsoever for me.
:/
back to xfce4. clunky, but consistent. some bugs. it's ok.
I know lots of people don't like Macs because they're not super tweakable, and that's fine. It's still my impression that Gnome is aiming for that target, while not quite understanding why a lot of people do like Macs.