With all possible kindness...

> Devs do not get to decide

I'm sorry but developers get to decide literally everything. They're the ones putting in the work. They build the systems they want for themselves. They solve the problems they personally care about in ways they personally feel is best.

If you want them to build the system you want, you'll have to pay them.

> But I guess Linux desktop has chosen its path of being only for tinkerers who are prepared to adopt an entire culture of quirks instead of users focusing on what’s important for them in their own lives.

This betrays your attitude. You think what we do is not important. You don't care about the system, it's just "cognitive burden" to you. Only your "core tasks" matter.

"Users focusing on what’s important for them in their own lives" -- that's us. We just happen to care about and focus on the system itself. We enjoy the freedom to rebuild the system according to our vision of how things should work.

Numerous independent tinkerers developing their own systems naturally leads to inconsistency. It's a very organic process. It's a mess, but that's okay. Our freedom is far more important than conforming to some "standard" in order to "reduce cognitive load".

If solutions converge, let them do so for the right reasons, namely that it leads to a better system for us. Other people don't really matter.