I'll try something different next install, I swear.

https://slrpnk.net/post/35266038

Been on Awesome WM since '08, but once dappled with KDE. Does it still have resource hungry processes that I have no use for (IIRC, Akonadi or daemons related to it were one of those problematic components)?
It does, but they are removable (and I think there is an option to just install the base KDE package by itself rather than the bundles)
It’s the heaviest.