Give it a try. Perhaps they may give you at least a hint.

Pcmanfm? Nemo? However, if one does not need a GUI I would suggest ranger, nnn or alike.

You mean switching between the DE xfce and the WM i3wm, right? Yep, this works and it can indeed make life sometimes easier to have a DE and a WM aside each other.

I have went through your text quickly. Very personal sometimes, especially considering the POV, which can pass by as subjective. I also disagree with the idea that human beings are a collective animal, while this is true in the general sense, you have by nature often one that is leading and others that prefer (or not) to follow. Unfortunately, it is question of person and moment when this one tries to take favour of a situation. I think that almost all communities are communities of convenience: you provide something, others need, and in total we all gain - however, the convenience is the leading force. Anyway, I do not want to jump deeper into this, because it gets very philosophical and social - which also means that there are views as many as there are people. But thank you for your effort and thoughts, which you have put in.

Ah, I am soRRy. I am new to Lemmy and have still to learn new things. The link in the title works! Thank you!

I am absolutely with you about i3. Simply great (there is also dwm or qtile)! But it is a WM, not a DE, what OP asked about.

Did you contact TUXEDO Support Centre?

I did. On Reddit. And got banned. Now switched to Lemmy, because I thought that mods are normal here, but it seems that either Reddit mods caught up or Lemmy is Reddit in blue. Hope not so!