I think part of the problem here is that window managers and desktop environments are being conflated. Desktop environments are sometimes set up to handle soun

I think part of the problem here is that window managers and desktop environments are being conflated. Desktop environments are sometimes set up to handle sound or networking. I agree that it's not a good design, but I don't think it's as ridiculous for a desktop environment to handle these things as it is for a window manager to do so.