I've used i3 and xmonad in the past when I was having RSI issues, but found they impeded my productivity on some fronts, so when my RSI faded and I was able to

I've used i3 and xmonad in the past when I was having RSI issues, but found they impeded my productivity on some fronts, so when my RSI faded and I was able to mouse/touchpad again, I switched back to default Gnome (this was also around the time Gnome 3 came along, and I quite like Gnome 3 in most regards). I'm not really intimidated by tiling window managers, I just prefer a hybrid approach. There's a lot to like about the default Gnome experience. But, it may be worth another try. My way of interacting with my OS has changed a lot over the years; I really prefer to just install the distro and start using it. Very little customization, so that when I move to a different machine it's not a big bunch of customizations to bring over (that may or may not work on the next version of the distro, or whatever). But, not being able to split up my screen in exactly the way I want is definitely hindering my productivity, so maybe another round with tiling window managers is the way forward.