It's mostly libinput. Why the hell can't I easily change scroll speed on Gnome and not on KDE? Why does gnome have a simple tool (gnome tweaks) to change the trackpad cooldown to change the time trackpad doesn't work as a substitute for good palm rejection and KDE doesn't? Why is it a bit of a pain in both to change trackpad gestures? Why am I hearing again about God damn redesigning the settings placement on most desktop environments.
Edit: I love both KDE and Gnome, and I think that they're great. But it kinda hurts to see them fail on what seem like relatively simple things
It sounds like you'd be better off with a DE or WM that isn't gnome. The GNOME Project has been progressively sticking more and more of the customization features of the DE behind either gnome tweaks or the command line, likely to unify the experience for all users and improve the ability to provide support.
Personally, as far as gnome-based DEs are concerned, I prefer cinnamon, but I'm fine running Mint to just have it come pre-installed. I don't know what dependencies it pulls in now if you install it standalone from Mint.
I’m using KDE, but my point still stands about both… also, would be nice for newbies if KDE had a few presets when it comes to layout to make the users realise how truly powerful it is