Gnome is a just a full screen menu, but without a desktop to work on. Reminds me of Windows 8. Gnome has one hotcorner called activities, which skippy-xd can do without even a hotcorner. If I am to keep on looking for extensions to get some features in, and not knowing what the next update would do to them, its better to use XFCE or Openbox and adjust the DE/WM to your needs, which would stay that way for years.
The full screen menu created in 2011 still works. Mouse wheel on panels (xfce4, tint2 etc) still works changing virtual work spaces. Like you, I’ll look into the Gnome 40, when it comes for curiosity’s sake.