I've always loved Gnome, even when it looked like Mate. I do feel like customization isn't perfect but I love the clean layout, snappy behavior and multi-desktop implementation. I worry that it won't be given the same love KDE gets, but I know the Gnome team works hard to make a solid DE. I might switch back to it this week. I've been using Labwc for awhile, but I do miss just using my desktop rather than editing the config files to get close to the same experience.