it's been a few years since I've done this, but I used to have the same problem as you and I found that if I ran MATE but replaced the default WM in it, Marco,

it's been a few years since I've done this, but I used to have the same problem as you and I found that if I ran MATE but replaced the default WM in it, Marco, with i3, I got to have my tiling WM inside a proper DE. It was really great! If you are interested there are a few guides you can find if you search. I'm certainly not the first or only person to do this. I only stopped using it because I eventually got a very large screen and tiling doesn't fit my flow anymore, so I just use KDE now lol