A desktop/workstation/whatever should have a graphical user interface. If you want another GUI you can choose another distro (like Kubuntu etc).
where exactly did I say anything contrary to what you said.
Are you implying that GNOME is the only thing that should be considered graphical? That everything else has to be an alternative? That GNOME, by virtue of existing has infinite reprieve to change the definition of user interfaces at their leisure; even if it means breaking muscle memory hundreds of thousands of times over decades.
I don’t follow the point of what you said.
Ubuntu can have one GUI and Kubuntu can have another. Every distro can't be everything for every person.
Lets put KDE as the default for Ubuntu and have GNOME available on Gnubuntu instead. :)
If you run Ubuntu you are free to do what you want with it.
Distro: "The most used DE needs first class support, we should probably bend to it" → Distro: "We should probably make this DE the default since it's so widely used and supported" → User: "I choose the default" → Distro: "The most used DE…"
So yes, people have different preferences; but if your preference is GNOME today, it might not be GNOME tomorrow, and "I picked the default" isn't quite the neutral signal it looks like.