It is great that you can use Gnome without issue, the problem is that Gnome developers and a big part of teh community had this attitude and ignored the complaints about lag and memory leaks until Ubuntu switched to Gnome and a big number of people were "forced" into Gnome and the problems could not be blamed on drivers or extensions.

If you are using terminals a lot you should try Konsole, see how customizable it is(tabs, you can have multiple profiles, set a profile per tab) the app is made to help you do your job better, same with Dolphin. Gnome apps are optimized for an ideal new users, a user that is so "special" that power options will make his brain collapse, the apps are made by designers and not by user feedback.