This happened 13 years ago at this point, and with all that "immense harm" desktop Linux is more popular than ever.
I don't use Gnome, and it really wouldn't matter much to me if the project ceased operations tomorrow (as long as stuff like GTK is still around), but remember that normal people like you and me work on that project, people who are passionate about making a free system to benefit everyone; and you're calling their work "extremely harmful" when the worst thing they did was radically change the UX.