Shrug? Our experiences have been totally different then.

I bought an older version of Zorin, probably 15 or 16, to review for a blog, and I was totally impressed with the consistency of the theming.

To each their own, but Zorin is a cheap on-ramp for people coming from older Windows/Mac and looking for a somewhat apples-to-apples experience of Windows or Mac, with actual updates and not a bunch of ads or telemetry.

Not everyone is a Linux power user

The consistency of the theming isn’t the issue, it’s that it’s just theming (unless I’m just misunderstanding). KDE or GNOME with an XP theme applied settings toggled still acts like KDE or GNOME rather than acting like XP. The resemblance is skin-deep.

Good theming is great to have, but what’s more important is that the user’s prior experience and muscle memory still applies, e.g. the task manager can be summoned in the same ways, settings panels are structured similarly (and aren’t either overflowing or too stripped down like KDE and GNOME, respectively), key shortcuts are the same with no caveats, etc.