GNOME 2 was different and easy to customize

GNOME is still in their KDE 4.x days where it needs time to mature.

KDE 3 was loved, KDE 4 made a ton of breaking changes, and was reviled. KDE 5/6 are now butter smooth and fixed all the issues from the 3 -> 4 transition

GNOME 4/5 will probably come back into the loved category if they start stabilizing the extension system some more

So, would your suspicion be that it’s causing them more failed boards in production?

I guess if it’s reducing returns, that might be something they’re accepting as a tradeoff?