The GNOME designers really only give a damn about UI, eyecandy, and making everything as cool and good looking as they physically can. The real problem is that this has basically annihilated any trace of decent UX from GNOME, and it went from being literally one of the best UX ever made (GNOME 2, now MATE) to an absolute mess of good looking, confusing crap.

GNOME 3 and 4x aren't just "different". They are simply bad. GNOME 2 was different, and it was amazing. I remember letting my mother using my computer in the late '00s and even though she was absolutely terrible with computers she figured out how to use GNOME 2 in like, 20 minutes. Applications? Click on applications. Where is the download directory? Just click on Places.

Sadly GNOME isn't alone in this trend though, no one except KDE Plasma gives a damn about UX anymore.