"I want the primary thing I'm working on to be right in front of me, not all over the place." is exactly why people use tiling window managers. The screenshots where people have dozens of apps all shown on a single monitor are mostly memes or to flex their uncommon layout engine.

I just place windows wherever based on what feels right at that moment. I haven't minimized one in years.

Two windows side by side makes them both too large to be practical. I'd have to get creative enough tiling them I never bothered. We don't tile the papers on our desks either, nobody complains.

Browser? Probably front and center. Chat window? Somewhere in my peripheral vision. If I'm doing a lot of things, I might move some windows over to another virtual desktop.