I remember I dumped GNOME around 2.4, due to discussions about print UI and how close to every setting should be removed from it, possibly retained in Gconf. At the time there was still the idea that "sure, we lost a lot of settings and features in rewrite between 1.4 and 2.0, but we're going to add them back"... and the printing discussion gave me red alert of moving to "developers know best". The further evolution of GNOME only reinforced that feeling.