It was really better when Ubuntu invented and supported Unity desktop.
Which was great, functional and sometime unique.
For now Ubuntu strictly depends on ill minds of GNOME developers. Last GNOME changelogs are full of removal of features, instead of polishing existing functionality which were here for 10-20 years. So it is wrong decision to depend on GNOME desktop for enterprise grade desktop with massive user base.
And newbies are also out of comfort with GNOME. They heard somewhere that Ubuntu is cool, then went to ubuntu.com and download default GNOME desktop which really and surprisingly does not allow to manipulate the icons on the desktop.
It is really time to change the default Ubuntu desktop to MATE which maintains desktop icons (to be on-topic) normally and traditionally by using Caja (fork of Nautilus). Otherwise Ubuntu desktop will become a broken toy with broken desktop.