Hi Dave
Have you tried Raspbian Lite and TDE?, e.g. https://davelers.com/Linux/Distros/Debian/#5272
That is what I did.
When I start the gui with startx I get a window with the message: "Could not starttdestartupconfig. Check your installation". When I close this window an other on came up with the message: "Call to lnusertemp failed (temporary directory full?). Check your installation"
I have 344M free on the partition where /tmp is on.
Does someone give me a hint, what package is missing or what is the reason for this messages.
Many thanks for any suggestions Rolf