I think it comes down to a few things:

1. It integrates very well with the rest of the system. Using just
Gnome, you can configure your WiFi, Bluetooth, Network (ethernet
profiles, VPN, etc.), whether your mouse scrolls in the original manner
or Apple style, Wacom tablet integration, printer setup, etc. While I
believe all of this can be configured in KDE as well, it sometimes
requires separate applications or the integration isn't as good. As for
other DE's, you have to resort to stuff like network-manager-applet
(not that bad really), blueman, etc., or just managing it via the
command line.

2. Tight integration with systemd, logind, etc.

3. A good set of default applications.

4. More advanced stuff such as fractional scaling when running under
Wayland (scaling OSX-style rather than Windows-style).

5. Visual customization is minimal but IMO that's great for the
majority of users. When needed, open the Tweaks application for a lot
of additional settings. Yes, it's still not KDE-level, but IMO KDE has
_way_ too many options.

6. Multiple desktops with compositing. Hitting the meta key shows you
all windows, still live, on your current desktop as well as minimized,
and allows you to select an application to become active and/or move
windows around virtual desktops. Again, all while still continuing to
render (i.e., if you're watching a YouTube video, you'll still see the
"live" window anywhere where the window can be seen.

7. Proper integration with Plymouth

8. Can automatically decrypt and mount encrypted external/detachable
hard disks as well as ask for a password and save in the keyring.

9. Works very well with Wayland and is the default.

10. The ability to tweak just about anything visually with CSS and/or
JavaScript.

That's all I can think of at the moment.

Someone also mentioned something about a tray; the best one I've used
and currently use is Ubuntu's appindicator-based tray:
https://github.com/ubuntu/gnome-shell-extension-appindicator

On Mon, 2020-11-09 at 07:58 -0500, Steve Litt via PLUG-discuss wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> A recent thread got me thinking: What does Gnome offer that any old
> environment with a panel (the thing they used to call a "taskbar" in
> win98)? What can you do with Gnome that you can't do with LXDE or
> xfce?
> 
> I'm unable to use Gnome because I init with runit rather than
> systemd,
> but I'd still like to understand how Gnome makes life easier for
> people.
> 
> SteveT
> 
> Steve Litt 
> Autumn 2020 featured book: Thriving in Tough Times
> http://www.troubleshooters.com/thrive
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