I've always believed that GNOME 3 is quite innovative, and the only desktop environment which develops freely regardless of other OS's paradigms. Aside from that, there is a native, community driven extensions system which lets you customize it as much as you want; even beyond of GNOME 2.

Not coincidentally, GNU/Linux distros focused on beginners mediocrity like Ubuntu and Mint have refused to embrace completely the new shell (although ironically they still heavily rely on GNOME's core), while the edge distros like Fedora, Arch , Debian, Gentoo and even the BSDs received it with open arms; or at least they enable you to choose the DE of your taste, 'cause their users actually know how to use a computer and do not need their mommy to improvise an interface that resembles what babies are used to know.

Most of the things you say about the new Nautilus are quite lame lies. First it was something that didn't occur out of the blue; it had been planned time ago. Second, most of the features you say are gone are not. The type ahead search isn't gone; actually it was improved. The "new file" option still works if you know how to use a ~/templates folder. I still see a pretty reworked app menu. Preferences, connect to server, bookmarks and "go to" are now accessed through the application menu on the panel (supposing you are using gnome-shell and not hybrid stuff such as Unity or Cinnamon WHICH AREN'T PART OF GNOME and GNOME developers aren't responsible of). Please get a bit more informed before writing a whole hateful article about something.