Here is the ultimate problem with GNOME. It is essentially a lie.
What I mean: Imagine you bought a ticket for Matrix 4, and they showed John Wick.
That's what GNOME 3 did. They made a new and different product; whether you like it more or less than the last one isn't the point. They betrayed the reliance we had on the old thing by a "lie of omission." A more honest approach would have been to name Gnome 3 something different (and perhaps hand the Gnome name off to the MATE people?)