I'd argue that a file manager shouldn't be a function of the Desktop Environment. No that a GUI file manager is necessarily bloat, but a file manager should be

I'd argue that a file manager shouldn't be a function of the Desktop Environment. No that a GUI file manager is necessarily bloat, but a file manager should be independent of whatever DE you're using. Tiling window managers like i3 (or Sway) are very performant, if not really intuitive. XFCE is still under active development and it behaves the way you'd expect a normal desktop to.