You've hit the nail on the head. The lack of (enforced but painfully overrideable) standards was a fundamental contributor to fragmenting the "Linux Desktop",

You've hit the nail on the head. The lack of (enforced but painfully overrideable) standards was a fundamental contributor to fragmenting the "Linux Desktop", if there was such a thing to begin with. This coupled with the community philosophy of "one man's turd is another's lollipop", leads to a thousand flowers blooming, with none representative of a "Linux Desktop" and thus fundamentally confusing to new users in the target audience.