What I run today would have looked the same 20 years ago. How many times have Desktop Environments changed during this time? One has to constantly devote time to keep up with changes mostly aimed at typical consumers, and sometimes they are detrimental because they are aimed at the majority.

Setting up something complex definitely takes time and has its cons but that time is definitely finite, I am not saying that I magically got to my setup, it did not take me a year either. And once it is yours, it is yours. Moreover, when the environment is easily extensible like Emacs and StumpWM are it is easy to mold them to a new task that lands on your table.