I guess it’s time to leave Ubuntu as a new user and switch to a new distro. Ubuntu, Xubuntu, and Mint were my choice, but their base, Ubuntu, is becoming “bloated”, and turning to a latest computers’ OS. And I think it will affect its derivatives. Which distro would you suggest to switch to. I aint rich. I’m already aware of Fedora and its xfce, kde spins, Opensuse Leap and Tumbleweed, Debian and its derivatives, and Void. Are you planning to switch too.
Ubuntu feels a bit slow, the snaps I think is that problem as they launch slower. But Ubuntu-based distros don’t use snaps (Mint, popOS).
There are also Ubuntu-based distros that don’t use gnome (Mint, popOS).
There are also non-Ubuntu distros that do use gnome. There’s people who like gnome and people who don’t, but it’s not “bloat” and it’s not limited to Ubuntu.