I don't think the debate is between xmonad and some WM. The debate is between Ubuntu's Gnome set-up before Unity and Ubuntu's set-up with Unity. Ubuntu's Gnome

I don't think the debate is between xmonad and some WM. The debate is between Ubuntu's Gnome set-up before Unity and Ubuntu's set-up with Unity. Ubuntu's Gnome set-up was never been like xmonad or even a tiling window manager and neither is Unity. It seems to me that, as far as you're concerned, Ubuntu's default set-up sucks just as much as it always has. edit: fixed mis-wording in second paragraph.