I'd advice to have at least a brief look at MATE, since its whole point is to maintain the Gnome 2 feel. They're also receiving truckloads of money, so there's

I'd advice to have at least a brief look at MATE, since its whole point is to maintain the Gnome 2 feel. They're also receiving truckloads of money, so there's lots of manpower behind, but the most interesting thing is that they took the opposite direction of Gnome 3 - they're giving a lot of flexibility to the users (see all the panel options at https://ubuntu-mate.org/blog/ubuntu-mate-artful-final-release https://ubuntu-mate.org/blog/ubuntu-mate-artful-final-releas...).