It is not designed to be “retro”, like a toy. While it prefers many older, simpler technologies, it is designed to be used.

XFCE is much more functional than CDE.

I'm pretty sure CDE is available, it's just (sensibly IMO) not the default. Listed in https://www.tribblix.org/Use/5.desktop.html & https://www.tribblix.org/overlay-cde.html