I installed Elementary on a USB thumb drive and tried it out. I was unable to create folders on the desktop or drag and drop to the desktop. I didn't test it beyond that, but that was all I needed to see.

I have avoided GNOME desktop environment because it doesn't allow drag and drop to the desktop, to inserted sd cards/thumb drives, to the trash can, etc....

I continue to use Unity until I find something better.

You'd definitely not like Ratpoison, as I do?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ratpoison

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/window_manager
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desktop_environment

The issue is that we are seeing a divergence in device classes...

Higher power laptops and desktops with physical keyboards, mice, and trackpads where old school file managers make sense...

...and lower power tablets and mobile devices with touch screens that are meant to be used with fingers and stylus tapping away. These need reliable onscreen keyboards, apps with touch friendly interfaces, and easily navigable menus.

A distribution like Mint+Cinnamon has the first category nailed. The issue is that the lighter distributions that would be suitable for the second class of devices don't have the necessary interface.

The interfaces that would be suitable for them (gnome3 or unity) are too heavy for their hardware specs.

This is where I think elementaryOS hits a home run.

It's like when you say a movies names or even just the actors without diving into the lifetimes of credits.

I'm not one to talk as am about to build my 1st kernel for a: Novena "open hardware and F/OSS-friendly computing platform."

I got into Debian because it has the most available, hence mint*...

The problems is there are a lot of directions, best found narrowing search education.

And of course, with volunteers* it could take time?