The alternative for "maximize" on Mac is to simply double click the Window, although some Windows do not have much of a "title" or "bar" to click on, because of modern simplification of GUIs, and this can cause accidents to happen. Still, I will argue it is incorrect to have the maximize button do something that I hardly ever need to do, that is, enter full screen for the given window.
Both Gnome and KDE are better desktop environments, heck even Windows 11 has done a better job (although they ruined the taskbar now).
The mere fact that you can not change things to your liking on Mac proves my point. You have to buy- and install third party applications from developers that you do not know or trust, and that is just to fix some of the most basic issues. Microsoft recently also decided to go down this route, and have now sabotaged their own Taskbar, preventing users from moving it.
It has nothing to do with "not being used to the Mac-way" – these things are just worse on Mac. There is nothing good about not having direct access to the location address in your File Manager, or not being able to change this stupid default behaviour of various keys and UI elements.
The ability to use "cut" on files, and actually change location by a text-based address bar are both to be considered core features. It is entirely brainless and inconvenient that we have to hold in "option" just to get a "move files" option to show up in the right click context menu.