Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wow, so this is what GNOME has become. I've ditched them in favor of Mate at some point and later made that into an i3/Mate combination. Something about editing text files for configuration is just inherently better over clicking through dozens of menus.
what's an i3/mate combination? do you mean you switch between them as you feel like it, or somehow have a combined workspace with both? don't you need to log out to switch?
Mate has good i3 integration. I'm running i3, but have the mate panel and menus and stuff.