Put another way, as a user that prefers CLI + text mode (and stuck with DOS whenever possible for many years after installing Windows 3.0), I'd rather not start

Put another way, as a user that prefers CLI + text mode (and stuck with DOS whenever possible for many years after installing Windows 3.0), I'd rather not start a desktop environment. These days, there's basically no choice. Most software (even the text editor at work: VS Code) has abandoned text mode.