>Now one of the worst parts is that everywhere I only even hint at not completely loving the new libadwaita theme I instantly get shut down and disagreed with before I can even get the chance to give some feedback.
This is so typical for the open-source community. For a supposedly 'open' culture, its full of ivory towers and (layers of) cool kids clubs, meaning if you want to build an app, or change something you don't like, and want others to be able to use your changes as well, you are met with layers of people who are at best indifferent, and at worst hostile, but the thing is you absolutely NEED their approval unless you can make your own distro (your own club) and fork their code and try to somehow keep up with the main branch.
The last thing I want to do with my free time, is solve an issue, only to be met with draconian authority telling me how to build my app, and then have to solve my issue again in 6 months, when the platform people break everything.
I think the culture of abusing volunteers on a volunteer-driven project is exactly why desktop Linux can't break out of the niche OS category.
GNOME is pretty much the worst offender here, which really makes it all the more baffling. They constantly wax helplessness, begging for more contributors or feedback on their OS, and when people try to contribute or give feedback on their OS, they say "no not that part!" and go redesign something they don't take personally. It's especially ironic considering how they worship "usability" in the other hand, insisting that their lack of functionality is so that they can better emulate macOS. It's remarkably frustrating.
But it's also the sort of behavior that keeps other developers going. KDE is great at soliciting user change, and nothing is "off the table" for scrutiny or redesign. Many other desktops share that same philosophy. The pockets of high-and-mighty developers are what end up shooting desktop Linux in the foot, and while I do happily daily-drive Linux, I can say with certainty that it will never hit the mainstream with maintainers like these driving the best-funded desktop environment.
This is so typical for the open-source community. For a supposedly 'open' culture, its full of ivory towers and (layers of) cool kids clubs, meaning if you want to build an app, or change something you don't like, and want others to be able to use your changes as well, you are met with layers of people who are at best indifferent, and at worst hostile, but the thing is you absolutely NEED their approval unless you can make your own distro (your own club) and fork their code and try to somehow keep up with the main branch.
The last thing I want to do with my free time, is solve an issue, only to be met with draconian authority telling me how to build my app, and then have to solve my issue again in 6 months, when the platform people break everything.
I think the culture of abusing volunteers on a volunteer-driven project is exactly why desktop Linux can't break out of the niche OS category.