Yup. GNOME 2.0 was a little rough because they swung far enough the other way, but it was still a huge improvement to remove all the "unbreak me" obvious preferences that only had one sensible answer. A few versions later, it was a delight to use.
GNOME 2 was lovely.
Then GNOME 3 came and I switched to Mac.
GNOME 2 was lovely.
Then GNOME 3 came and I switched to Mac.