I'm not sure what kind of defaults you would like to see. For instance I have this in my i3 config: bindsym XF86AudioRaiseVolume exec --no-startup-id amixer ss

I'm not sure what kind of defaults you would like to see. For instance I have this in my i3 config: bindsym XF86AudioRaiseVolume exec --no-startup-id amixer sset 'Master' 2%+ bindsym XF86AudioLowerVolume exec --no-startup-id amixer sset 'Master' 2%- but there's no guarantee that this would work everywhere depending on what's installed, I just know that it works in my case. It's easy enough to look up anyway ('linux change volume from terminal'), so users would just save 5 minutes if the default worked for them. I think the message is that i3 is not targeting the same people as Gnome, and it's fine. Different software for different needs and trade-offs.