[dustinmr]

Maybe try changing the paradigm completely with a tiling window manager.

Take a look at https://regolith-linux.org/

I tried i3wm, a tiling window manager a few years ago, and it just sort of clicked with me. Eventually I set up a laptop with it, and decided I like it better than Mac. Around that time, Regolith was announced, and I found it to be a great looking, and great set of defaults and starting point. Gnome is still available if you get lost or break something.

Incidentally, I eventually arrived to using PopOS, and then installing regolith from the package manager. Working well so far.