Crazy that this popped up right now. I am a lifelong Linux desktop user, primarily on KDE Plasma the past 10 years or so. I'm a Virtual Desktops devotee because I swap back and forth between multiple projects/clients. I recently acquired a Mac and found, as you said, the Dock is "app centric" and that this inherently cripples Spaces / Mission Control.
- Clicking things in the Dock or elsewhere keep taking me off my current Space. There's a setting that supposedly stops this (disable "When switching to an application, switch to a Space with open windows for that application"), but that only affects affirmative clicking in the Dock. If you try to open a file it will still seek out an existing instance of that app and take you to another Space if it finds it there.
- Spaces are named "Desktop 1", "Desktop 2", etc. I need to give them custom names that represent the actual work I do in them.
This is by no means a complete list. My overall impression is that Spaces and their various settings are a bolt-on, with requirements built by committee to resolve the tension between the users who want virtual desktops and the users who want nothing to change.
@OP, here are my suggested improvements based on a morning's worth of use:
1. If you have clicked on the Applications button to raise that menu, clicking on the button again should collapse it. Right now it just re-raises it.
2. Let's say one of my apps is a messaging app like Slack or Signal, and there's a new incoming message. In KDE Plasma or GNOME, the taskbar or docked representation of the app will visually change (as does your chip) but more importantly there's a toast-style an on-screen notification. I'm actually not sure what happens on the Mac by default when you're using the Dock. Regardless, I'm finding I'm missing incoming messages because I'm not scanning boringBar for the visual indicator that a new message has come in.
3. Allow us to give our own names to the Spaces/Desktops.
4. Provide an option for rendering the Space/Desktop switcher as an array of chips so we can switch with one click, rather than the current two clicks (one to raise the pop-up menu, two to choose the desktop). The lack of (3) and (4) has me sticking with "Deskspace" for now, but also because Deskspace parks the desktop switcher in the menu bar, which is similar to how I have it working on KDE Plasma.
5. As another user pointed out, the bar is... dark. Changing on/off Frosted Glass isn't sufficiently changing the visual appearance.