I’m hesitant to swap DEs, XFCE has WM tweaks I really like (accessibility>hide title of windows when maximized) and on top of that I made my own ultra-minimal XFWM theme (frameless, 12px titlebar, works well for a rolled-up music player or watching a video in mpv looking like PiP).
Seems a bit odd to have so much standard, correct-era tech. Having anachronism seems like the point, the futurism bit. Like Quadrilateral Cowboy, or often Cowboy Bebop.
The one exception may be the stuff like that Nissan 300ZX (1985) digital dashboard, that feels anachronistic in an entirely different way. I could imagine a 3hr video essay on how expensive the design was, or perhaps a Technology Connections breakdown of the functionality/workings/issues etc.