First, I never liked Gnome, I remember trying it few times years ago, and quickly returning back to fvwm2 every time. On the other hand, I never understood why window managers put icons on the window title bars, and in my own fvwm2 config, the max and min icons were the first thing I removed. I mostly used keyboard to toggle between maximized and unmaximized state of a window, and if I really needed a mouse for it, I would double click the title bar with the same effect (I also used keyboard to toggle vertical only and horizontal only maximization). With practically unlimited number of virtual desktops, I never needed to minimize a window, and I usually had too many windows open for a taskbar to be useful, instead I had a popup menu for finding windows (both just this desktop and all desktops). Now, after switching to i3, my windows still have no icons on title bars, and I use rofi to find windows, so still no taskbar.