Properly configured, the old Spaces was a passable replacement for virtual desktops, with some caveats.

I always had a 4-space, one-row layout. Wrap-around worked, but the animation was a bit confusing at first (it lets you move "right" past the last space, but the animation shows you moving three spaces to the left). I never used Spaces to move between spaces, keybindings and mouse gestures accomplished those. I only entered Spaces view when I wanted to move windows from one space to another.

If I had to use the mouse every time I wanted to change spaces, I'd stop using it too.