its also how you configurs, for me i notice kde stil a bit heavier but not to far off. its also how you measure to memory use. you need also a neutral program that measure the use of it.
it depend if you configured full-blown kde or not , xfce is reasonble already smaller also in packages size, zo is way less to leave it out but its stil possible to down tune it a bit not much.
to configure kde you have to watch that you dont install unneccesary packages because it runs more in the background.
and also relays on the system in use… on an 8core with 64GB ram and SSD Plasma compared to XFCE4 are may the same slick, but on a dual-core with 4GB of RAM and HD running you will see a difference for sure
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but i think pratical with 16gb these days the standard or become , dont think you will care about… i think DT has something on his tube channel 
Hi, there! A couple of months ago, I came across a Forbes article showing that the current new version of KDE specifically for the KDE Neon consumes just as much as the XFCE!
The article also includes an answer from an XFCE developer who admits it, mentioning that the small size of their team can’t make it easy to always focus on optimization.
Cheers 
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isn’t just about hardware…the distro too. for example linux mint xfce 19.2 use 300-390 mb ram in idle, and linux mint have many bloatware apps.
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1st time when you “agree” me 
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btw, i can confirm , but i dont find that post with xfce , when someone said “xfce is very laggy with just few apps and 1 tab opened in mozzilla”, or something like that. moved to kde again, and is more fast , apps opens more fast, with the same RAM used or less than xfce…depends on every setup…and not the last, KDE is beautiful out of the box. ok, 75% , because i dont like breeze theme 
@Tiger ,the whole point is where the author of the article, ends up:
"This initial testing certainly demands further exploration on a wide range of hardware and scenarios, but the answer is clear: we, the users, win.
With an abundance of choice and talented developers across the board putting their blood, sweat and tears into advancing the Linux desktop, the takeaway is that with each passing month, Linux becomes an even product regardless of how mighty or meager your computer is".
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What specifically do you think bloatware applications?