Windows interface is also stuck in 2005, and the evidence suggests most people prefer that.
Does it? Most people are spending all their time on their cell phone these days, and that's much closer to Gnome's UI. But yeah, anyone accustomed to windows will be better on Mint and cinnamon, however everyone else will be better off on Gnome.
Thing is, everyone has a phone now, and they spend an inordinate amount of time on it. Though I'm not excited about recommending Fedora either, the fact that it doesn't enable non-free software by default causes a bunch of issues.