I use KDE now but I've used GNOME for many years and I absolutely disagree with you. The default UI with the hidden dock makes complete sense, especially on laptops where screen space is valuable. Pressing the meta key to show all windows and the search field is way faster than moving your pointer to an icon on the dock or opening up a menu.
What I didn't like at the time was that the app launcher dumped all apps together with little logic, you couldn't divide them in folders or categories.