Depends on the goal I'd say.
My take is the flagship of the distro should definitely show improvements,
but still a tiny bit of familiarity. As you can see, it doesn't take much to
do so with Gnome 3.
It matters because to me, one of the main points is reaching new users. And
you know what is said about first impressions.
I personally think that choosing Mate is a mistake. Gnome 3 with a couple of
familiar plugins on by default is most likely best in most cases for the
aforementioned reasons.
All Mate has is being lighter on resources, and I'm not sure it's by far.
Plus that's what Trisquel mini is for.
Plus those who need it can make Gnome 3 function just like Mate
(gnome-classic if I remember correctly). That's what allowed Red Hat to stay
with Gnome.
