Mid level Linux user, who was once a Windows user who switched to Ubuntu, and has migrated to Debian. DE > distro, and please pick DEB based distros for an easy life.

GNOME. This is the best DE, hands down. Anyone saying KDE or some window manager is a hobbyist who is detached from reality and “normal” use cases. GNOME is in a different ballpark than every other DE, with XFCE-like resource usage while having the best workflow. Its design is the most beautiful and polished besides Deepin (third party software looks odd with it) and KDE (very bad resource usage and overload of customisation).