I do not feel strongly about any of this but i've found myself happier with KDE over the years.

Gnome seems to combine the worst aspects of OSX and windows with some things in side panel, some persistent menu bars, some applications with double menu bars... it's annoying is all.

KDE tends to stick to what i understand and what i want is usually where i expect it to be.

I would disagree with you in that the differences are substantive.