Desktop Environments always feel a bit clunky to me. A Window Manager like i3 or something is easier.

I get the idea of a desktop environment offering more consistency. But, my system feels very consistent. It is really easy, because there are only ~4 types of windows: Firefox, Evince, a terminal, or some ephemeral matplotlib graph.

I wouldn’t think of it as missing out on anything. You just become familiar with the ecosystem of mostly terminal utilities.