It deserves all the criticism.
And it is by far my favorite DE.
As a GNOME user since forever, I find it fascinating how much time KDE users spend thinking about GNOME. They seem so obsessed with customization, yet seem incapable of understanding that people could have preferences different from their own.

yet seem incapable of understanding that people could have preferences different from their own.

Perfect description of Gnome developers.

Oh yes, I forgot about that time they tracked down and kidnapped KDE contributors only for them never to be heard of again, depriving the poor FOSS community from their freedom of choice.

Lmao you hyperbole’d your own statement quoted back at you.

Or have there been cases of KDE preferers/devs doing this to gnome preferers/devs?

I was talking about users, not developers.

I’m under the crazy opinion that developers are free to develop whatever they want, and users are free to use whatever they want. If they are unhappy they can use something else or become developers.

If I develop something you do not want to use I do not restrict your freedom. GNOME developers are not restricting your freedom by creating a product that’s according to my preferences. They are giving us both freedom to choose what we prefer. The fact that GNOME is so different from KDE increases freedom of choice.

I don’t get what is so hard to understand here.