I understand that, but it doesn't seem to be a -default-. I used to be very involved in open source, tinkering, performance tuning, etc. Now I just want something that's usable out of the box. The default KDEs I've seen look more like Windows did, and I'm just not a fan of menu driven navigation...

I do not understand what do you mean that QWidgets are not the default, KDE apps do not use QML, the Plasma widgets use those(toolbar,start menu,clock etc)

You prefer Andoid/iOS like interfaces on your desktop ? I did not check all apps in KDE but Konsole and Dolphin let you hide the menus(if you need those pixels) also KDE apps let you hide or customize your toolbar so if you nver use the back/forward buttons you can hide them

Apologies, I was replying only specifically to the second point - feel of the desktop as a user. As a user, the default Gnome 3 look(top bar only, search driven application launch) feels much better than the default KDE look to me.

I keep the taskbar on the left side(Unity like) I do not see why taskbar on top is superior and the fact that KDE let's me put things as I need is very important.

let me give an example how options are better for me, my right eye is much worse then my left eye so I have the taskbar and notifications on the left, if it was reverse I would move them to the right.

Actually it is.

New Qt features are mostly implemented in QML with the high performance parts in C++.

Widgets are mainly for desktop deployments, with QML being pushed for embedded devices and mobile.

We agree, QML is not a replacement for desktop widgets, with my comment I tried to tell people that introduction of QML did not means that all Qt desktop apps are now looking like mobile apps.