This is my grandpa time, but I love Cinnamon for the less modern UI.
The new UI won’t bother me a cent, but I really disliked KDE for no apparent reason, and Cinnamon hit right what I like about a UI.
I understand that a lot of things can be customized, but I am talking about OoB experience.
VC funding is basically gambling, trying to find the next billion dollar company. So they throw money at anything that has any semblance of traction to get in early and cash out when the time comes.