From a non techical user perspective.

I used unmodified GNOME 40 and 49 for a week. There were few changes, I could absolutely see myself using the older version and not missing much.

In my opinion GNOME 4X is as good as linux DEs get. I would like to see some popular extensions getting official support and native dynamic tiling, but besides that it’s hard to see room for improvement.

Removing X11 is a big deal, but most users won’t see it as such.

How many people were using X11 on GNOME?

Yes, it’s technically a huge change, but regular user won’t see a difference

I must check it out, thanks

Honestly, not much changed since GNOME 40.

Is it a bad thing? No

Do I want more changes? Also no

The only thing missing from GNOME for me is proper dynamic tiling. I’m trying Forge extension, but it feels clunky