I would say it's extremely difficult at this point in time to run a general-purpose desktop without any Gnome-adjacent packages on it. The largest issue is web browsing (qutebrowser and links seem to be free of GTK and at-spi2, but I wouldn't trust them to support the average Javascript-choked "modern" website), and your only option for an office suite would be the KDE5-encumbered Calligra.
E. Liddell
I can only imagine that these problems will get worse; that whatever I am experiencing now is just the start. Since I have tried almost everything else, I am considering downgrading to Devuan Beowulf, which ought to remain "old stable" for another couple years. I don't know if that will change anything.
By the way, regarding "fresh" installations: I don't hear anybody on the list saying that they have only just installed or reinstalled their OS within the last few days. (That cartoon for which I sent the link was from 22 Feb., and my system was still running normally then; it is only a day or so afterwards that I started noticing these problems.)
So there is my question, or challenge, if you will. Who dares reinstall their OS, to see if they run into these same problems?
Bill