@seek back when i started using linux like 15y ago, KDE (3 now Trinity) weighted a ton, gnome (2 now MATE) was just fine as good compromise between functionality and consume of resources, XFCE (4) didn't meet my taste at that time.
Then the first 2 went away in fancy things to follow other commercial fashions, so i switched to minimal to LXDE/openbox/fluxbox... 🙂